Daggers of the Mind
by Lux's Sister
Summary: When Saw Gerrera is attacked in his home Lux and Ahsoka embark on a high-speed chase for a pair of spree-killing burglars resembling the infamous Bonnie and Clyde. As their hunt intensifies and some clues don't stack up quite right, Ahsoka and Lux find that while helping a friend, they may have uncovered more than they bargained for.
1. Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair

**DAGGERS OF THE MIND**

 **By LS**

 **CHAPTER ONE – FAIR IS FOUL, AND FOUL IS FAIR**

"Where's your suitcase?"

The blue Twi'lek turns to his girlfriend. "What? Why?"

Without answering, she pops the lid on his suitcase, picks out one of his shirts, and pulls it over her head. "That explain it?" she asks, pulling her hair from the collar. "Ouch. Hang on, I think my hair snagged on something…"

The Twi'lek rolls his eyes. "Humans," he mutters as he comes behind his girlfriend to untangle her hair.

She shrugs. "This shirt isn't made for humans."

"We'll have to get you some new clothes once we land." He points out.

"You too. When are we landing?"

He looks out the porthole. "Judging from the distance between us and the planet, I'd say an hour at most."

"And we have all our stuff?" she checks.

"We have everything."

The young woman saunters in front of him. "Onderon, huh? Pretty planet."

"I've seen better." He says grumpily.

"Jack," his girlfriend argues. "This is the best shot we have. Nobody's going to look for us on some Inner Rim world that nobody cares about."

"If we wanted apathy, we should have gone for the Outer Rim!"

"Like that's an option." She says sarcastically. "It's not safe there. We need somewhere, somewhere we can blend in with the lower population without having to worry about bounty hunters, or the Hutts. On worlds like these, nobody notices people like us. It's just a matter of finding a place, finding a job, and settling down."

Jack wraps his arms around her from behind, looking at the planet below them.

"How can I say no to a face like that?"

His girlfriend playfully brushes his arms off her shoulders.

"Don't you ever forget it." She orders, ever-so-slightly swaying her hips as she steps across the tiny cabin to fetch her jacket. "Give me a few minutes to get fixed up. Gotta look nice when we move in."

…

Jack covers her eyes when they walk off the transport.

"I swear to gods Jack, if I trip…"

"Don't worry, Mar." Jack reassures. "It's not much farther. Take a step…another…"

He pulls his hands from her face and she opens her eyes.

"It's better than I imagined it," she remarks, taking in the shining sun and bright blue skies, the people crisscrossing the cobblestone streets.

"You were right," Jack concedes. "It's perfect for us."

She glances over to him, looking at the two suitcases at their feet and the vast city before them.

"We don't have jobs yet," she says. "And with no jobs, no food, no utilities, no…"

"Don't worry about it, babe." Jack chides, putting his arms around her again. "Let's go find ourselves a house."

"Where do we start?"

"I don't know." Jack shrugs. "But I'm sure you'll pick a good one."

…

On Ryloth, a young man named Gon knocks on his friend's door.

"Rassk?" he calls inside to his friend. "Rassk, open up. You were supposed to be at work three hours ago. You're going to be lucky if the boss doesn't fire your lazy rear end."

No answer. Gon tries the door again.

"What is it this time? Beer or juma?" he says grumpily. "You can't mope around at home every time you get a hangover, Rassk. You do it too often to do that and pretty soon, you'll be lucky to catch a job if someone throws it at you. This is your third one this year and it's nothing fancy, but it pays."

Again, no answer.

"Come on, if it's that bad I'll let you have a few sips from my flask to help kill it." Gon offeres, passing on another gem of pseudo-wisdom famous among the young and the restless. "Or I'll brew you some caf in the back room. The boss won't care as long as you're working."

When no sound filters in from under the door, Gon decides that Rassk must be sleeping his hangover off, the lazy good-for-nothing. They may have bonded over their mutual love of girls and hardcore jawa juice, but there's a time and a place for such things.

One must have a job to pay for all that jawa juice.

He sighs, reaches above the door frame and retrieves Rassk's spare key. Gon forces it into the lock, twists, and opens the door.

The smell invades his nose instants after the door opens. Gon immediately covers the lower half of his face.

"Rassk!" he shouts, even louder. "Wake up! Force, whatever you did in here smells _awful!"_

He glances around Rassk's mostly bare kitchen to see if his friend had left food out to spoil in Ryloth's heat, but nothing is on the counters or the stove, and the oven is suspiciously bare.

The sound of buzzing comes from another room.

 _Must be his comlink,_ Gon thinks, setting off toward the source of the sound. "Rassk, if you don't get your rear out of bed right now, I don't care if you lose your job. Have fun finding another one, you lousy son of a -."

He stops cold.

In the middle of Rassk's filthy rug, thousands of insects gather in one spot to crawl over the orange-skinned body of the apartment's owner.

It suddenly hits him what he's been smelling the entire time.

Gon blinks hard.

And vomits.

…

In an apartment in downtown Iziz, Saw Gerrera flops down on his couch and grabs the remote to turn on his television.

He absently scrolls through the channels for a while, not finding anything worth his time. All of the comedies are too contrived, the action shows unnecessarily violent, the holodramas too saccharine to entertain himself with. Kriff, he barely ever watches it except for the news and sports.

The news won't be on for another fifteen minutes, so Saw flips to the sports channel. No one that he cares about is playing. Disgusted, he turns off the television.

"All the times we fought over the one set in base," he grumbles, directing his gaze to a bejeweled music box on the coffee table, "And now I can't even pick the shows I want to watch."

He scoops the box into his hands, mindlessly turning it over. "It's funny how life messes with you, Steela. First it's the HoloNet, and then it's me working in the palace like you always wanted to, and…" He sets the box on the table and delicately lifts the lid, closing his eyes and letting the music wash over him. It flows into his veins, soothing them like salve; Saw has never heard the simple song before, but it sounds almost like Steela's voice if he listens hard.

He kicks back in his seat and closes his eyes. _Might as well snooze away fifteen minutes until the news comes on. It's not like you have anything better to do._

Saw leans back in his saggy couch and kicks his feet up on the coffee table. Maybe he should invest in better furniture; he always ends up snoring on the couch more than in his bed.

A hard knock on the door startles his out of his drowsiness.

"Who is it?"

 _"Galactic postal service, sir. You have a delivery."_

Saw groans and lifts himself off the couch. "I'm comin', I'm comin'." He grumbles. Honestly, who would send him a package? He doesn't have any well-wishers and nobody knows his address, unless some random citizen sniffed him out and decided to send him a "we're-sorry-your-sister-died-but-thank-you-for-liberating-Onderon" gift. Saw doesn't like them, he's annoyed by the packages actually, but he knows some of the others deserve them so he doesn't say anything. Most of the time he just scratches out his name and sticks the gifts on his friends' doorsteps.

He opens the door. "If it's a present, can you just take it to -?"

A blaster pistol cracks against his forehead.

"AUGH!"

Saw fumbles for his coffee table, trying to find his blaster before he remembers it's uncharged – and the battery is on his kitchen counter. _Stupid, stupid, stupid, why didn't you charge the blaster?_

The attacker elbows him hard and shoves his way into the apartment, stopping only to haul Saw farther into the house and throw him into the nearest wall.

Saw hits the floor. He tries to struggle to his feet, but the lick of fire in his skull stops him cold.

His apartment door opens and shuts, followed by someone else's lighter footsteps.

"Jack?"

"We're good, Mar. He's not going anywhere."

 _Jack and Mar. Their names are Jack and Mar – you need to remember that._

Saw forces himself to roll over. A young woman stands in his doorway, her hair gathered in two braided pigtails. For some reason, Saw can't take his eyes from them. They look so strange.

 _Focus,_ he orders himself. _Jack and Mar. Blonde pigtails. The guy's a blue Twi'lek. I've got to get my gun…_

Mar readjusts her footing. "Why are you just standing there?"

"Just go through the house, willya?"

The woman's boots swivel and she walks down the hallway into Saw's kitchen. "Looks good so far, but don't do anything yet."

"I won't," the Twi'lek confirms, casually waving his blaster at Saw. "Let me know when I can."

Saw coughs and tries to muster up some air to speak, but the man kicks him hard in the ribs. "Shut up."

He walks over to the coffee table and trains his eyes down to the datapad, the empty beer can, the random letters and pieces of flimsi scattered over the surface, and…

Saw struggles to raise himself on an elbow and gropes toward the table.

 _Not that. You can have anything else in the house, but not that._

The Twi'lek scoops up the music box, and his face changes as he listens to the song, the song that sounds like a sweet little girl's.

Saw reaches for it fruitlessly.

Jack glowers at him and grabs the box, holding a slugthrower to Saw. "Stay down. I'm sorry pal, but you're getting evicted today."

If it was a blaster he would hear the batteries charge, but instead the man pulls back a mechanical slide. Saw digs his fingers into the carpet, praying he'll have the strength to throw himself into the Twi'lek and knock him down. If anything, it'll improve his measly odds.

The hammer clicks and Saw channels all his strength to his arms.

"Jack!"

The gun drops and before Saw can do anything, Jack brings a booted foot hard into his side.

"What, Mar?"

The woman returns and closes ranks with the Twi'lek. The pack around her shoulders bulges with what Saw can only assume are his possessions, and she's holding something in her hand.

Saw squints to make out the image, but he can't.

The woman hands the rectangular object to the man. "Look at this."

The man tilts the object, and Saw realizes what it is: the holo of him and Steela that sits on his bedside table.

He croaks and reaches for the man again. Reaching for the holo, the music box…his things.

"We can't do it … need to find a different place … I think I recognize … can't … no … you …. our … you."

The woman sets the holo in front of Saw.

"Is that box what's making the music? It's beautiful."

"Yeah. I say we keep it."

With all the energy he has, Saw roars.

Jack whips out his blaster – no, a slugthrower - and fires a shot into his leg.

"Time to go," he mutters and races out the door.

Saw lays on his apartment floor, bleeding as he watches the two leave.

 _Help. Police, Steela, somebody... help me._

His eyes catch the holo before he blacks out.

 **And so we begin again with a new story. You all know I know no way to end chapters but with a huge cliffhanger. (Saw blacked out on his apartment floor after being robbed of his late sister's stuff might be a little much for a first chapter.)**

 **Slugthrowers, for those who are unfamiliar, are the SW name for guns that use bullets.**

 **Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it, and please leave a review! I wish you all much turkey and mashed potatoes tomorrow.**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	2. A Drum! A Drum!

**CHAPTER TWO – A DRUM! A DRUM!**

 **AHSOKA**

I'm never going to get used to being called to a meeting in the middle of the night.

It's all the bad things of being woken up at ungodly hours to fight, with none of the helpful adrenaline to assist in kick-starting my brain. Only foggy, bone-deep exhaustion which makes me want to roll over in bed and close my eyes.

Every time it happens, I always swear that the next time I won't be a half-dead zombie walking down the Temple hallways and wishing I had a cup of caf in my hand or better yet, an intravenous drip of caffeine.

Note "every."

This time is like all the others. I shiver in the turbolift and wish I had a sweater to ward off the middle-of-the-night chill while the lift ascends to the Council's level.

 _What in blazes is so urgent that the Council needs me at one o'clock in the morning?_ I internally squabble. _They don't make a habit of assigning missions three hours apart. They know we need at least one full night's sleep between long stretches of light dozing and forcing your eyelids to stay open...right? Otherwise I might have to kill someone. They can't blame me; I'll claim sleep deprivation-induced insanity._

 _And why me, and not Anakin? They still send us on missions together._

I blink hard to wake myself up and walk through the open Council room door.

"You asked for me, Masters?" I bow, suppressing a yawn.

"Padawan Tano," Master Yoda acknowledges me. "An urgent transmission for you, there is."

"An urgent transmission?" Who would want to contact me through the Council?

"We understand that you've only returned from your last mission a few hours ago," Master Windu says, "But given the severity of the situation, we need you to report to Onderon immediately."

Onderon. Oh, this is not good.

"What's on Onderon? Is something wrong?" I ask, decorum slipping my mind for a second. This can't be happening. Onderon just gained its freedom about a month ago; what kind of crisis could have transpired in such a short amount of time? True, it was a ticking time bomb given that Dendup doesn't have any heirs, but he couldn't have died already. Is he sick? Did someone play the game of thrones well enough to shove their way to the top?

And what is Lux, the senator for Onderon, doing about it?

"It would be more efficient to have your friend explain," Master Windu says and presses the control on his chair's armrest.

The holoprojector in the center of the room buzzes to life with the blue likeness of Lux Bonteri.

 _"Have you reached a decision?"_ Lux asks feverishly.

I wave. "Senator Bonteri."

Lux startles. _"Padawan Tano! Hello to you, too. I apologize for waking you at an hour like this, but under the circumstances…"_

"Right, the circumstances…"

 _"You don't know about Saw?"_

My blood pressure spikes. "Saw?"

Lux turns his attention to the Council. _"She doesn't -?"_

"We thought it best that you tell her," Master Windu says tiredly. _Well, I know who isn't a morning person either._

I catch a barely detectable half-eye-roll from Lux before his face returns to its usual professional state. _"This evening, Saw was attacked in his apartment. He's in the hospital as we speak and King Dendup is working to transfer him to the palace's Med Bay."_

"Is he all right?" It's a pointless question. If Saw Gerrera is one thing, he's a strong, stoic fighter. If he needed to be taken to the hospital, I'd bet my entire Temple stipend that he's not.

 _"He'll live."_

I can sense Windu's annoyance at our commentary across the room. As much as I want to know more about Saw, I change the subject. "Who attacked him?"

Lux's face darkens. _"The militia thinks there have to be at least two people to pull something like this off. The same people who did it are responsible for two other attacks just like it. The only difference is that those ended with corpses."_

 _Corpses._ The subject material from a half-remembered class resurfaces while I sputter out "Saw was attacked by a serial killer?"

"Not a serial killer," Ki-Adi Mundi corrects me. "There is a difference. As these suspects don't have a waiting period between each victim, they're classified as spree killers."

 _Tomato, tomato._ "Spree killers, excuse me."

 _"And unfortunately, yes."_ Lux confirms. _"This is the first time they haven't killed their victim, and the first time they've operated on Onderon. General Tandin and the rest of the Militia is looking into it, but they won't get anywhere before a lot of people die - ."_

Master Windu decides to hasten his return to bed. "Padawan Tano, you will go to the Onderon system immediately to aid with the investigation. A transport is waiting for you outside."

Well, that destroys any thoughts of going back to sleep.

"Thank you, Masters." I say, and bow to their dismissal. "I'll be there as soon as possible, Senator Bonteri."

…

The first chance I get, I put the ship in autopilot, recline the seat back as far as it'll go, and close my eyes.

I have eight hours to catch up on a week's worth of sleep.

…

 _"Ahsoka Tano, you have been cleared to land."_

"Received, tower." I confirm and deploy the landing gear. "Landing now."

 _"Roger. Your party is waiting for you on the platform."_

Lux is sure in a hurry. But then again, after what just happened I'd be surprised if he didn't come straight from Saw's bedside.

Once she fighter is powered down I pop the cockpit and crawl out.

"Ahsoka!" Lux greets, jogging up to me. "It's good to see you again."

"Same to you," I say and wipe my palms on my pants. "I just wish it was under different circumstances. How's Saw?"

Lux's face shifts from polite enthusiasm to utter concern. "He's still in the hospital, but he's stable. The doctors are evaluating him as we speak."

I close ranks with him and we speedwalk over to the nearest speeder. "What's wrong with him?"

Lux opens the speeder door and gestures for me to climb in. I happily oblige. "He has a few bumps and bruises from being thrown around. He has a concussion; the scans don't show any kind of skull fractures though. But we're mostly concerned about the gunshot to the leg."

"Gunshot?"

"Yes, _gunshot."_ He clarifies, pulling away from the landing platform. "The attackers used a slugthrower pistol."

Slugthrowers are so old, they're practically obsolete. After the invention of the blaster, no one had any use for guns that shot solid bullets. I'm fairly certain the major manufacturers don't even _make_ them anymore.

I rack my mind for the few things Kix and various first aid classes taught me about slugthrower injuries. "Where was it? Is the bullet out?"

Lux nods. "It was a clean shot, but by the time someone found him he'd lost a lot of blood. As for where, the leg. He's lucky it didn't hit the femoral artery."

No kidding there. If Saw's femoral artery had been so much nicked, he would have bled to death in minutes. I've seen it happen too many times before.

"How long was he there?" I ask.

"Saw says they attacked him about fifteen minutes before five PM. The neighbors heard a commotion and went to investigate while after and found him. I don't know exactly how long he was laying there, but it was long enough for him to lose consciousness."

His fingers tighten around the speeder's controls and I sense his agitation in the force. Oh, this isn't good at all.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." I reassure. "Saw doesn't go down easily; it'll take more than a slugthrower to take him out."

"That's not everything. He keeps going on and on about something or other. Tandin hopes it's just a dream from his concussion, but I don't think so. He's babbling about Steela."

All my muscles turn to stone.

Lux glances over. "I shouldn't have said that."

"You didn't do anything wrong." I force out. "I hope Tandin's right."

"Ahsoka, I shouldn't have mentioned her." He says flatly. "We all miss her, and I shouldn't have brought her memory up like I did."

I swallow hard. It's true, while Steela Gerrera and I had our issues we mended fences. The issue may have closed for good when she kissed Lux, but we had a few conversations about guns and weapons, and brothers.

 _"Tell me," she asked the night Saw set off on his failed attempt to rescue the king. "Do any of your men make you want to punch something, or is that just brothers?"_

 _"Well, my brothers do the same thing." I replied. "It must be a part of being a brother."_

 _Steela snorted. "Amen. I swear by the time this is over, I'll be celebrating my victory bald."_

 _I looked at her head of curly hair, and then at my bleeding fingernails. "If it makes you feel any better, I won't have nail beds."_

 _"Maybe I should switch to that," she mused, glancing at her own hands. "They grow back faster."_

When I mentioned it offhandedly to Padme later, she smiled and asked what we talked about next.

Answer: we didn't. We had a briefing to give. I swear Padme deflated like a balloon when she heard it.

I swallow. "How far away is the hospital?"

"We should be there in a minute or two, traffic willing." Lux says. "One thing about using a speeder on Onderon, it can be slow going."

…

Lux parks the speeder as close to the door as he can without blocking an ambulance bay. In his rush, he forgets to lock the doors.

"Lux, wait up." I lock the speeder for him and jog to catch up to his quickened pace.

Lux looks at me and his face falls. "Oh, right. I'm sorry."

"No harm done," I close the distance between us and lock step with him. "What floor is Saw on?"

Lux pauses.

"You don't remember?"

"He was still in the emergency bay when I last saw him, but they've moved him to a different floor now." He explains. "We'd better ask reception."

"Are you on Saw's medical records? If he hasn't given you permission, the staff can't tell you anything." I point out. I found that nightmare out when Anakin was injured in battle and the medical droid couldn't even confirm that he was treated. After that, he put me down for his records.

"I don't think so," Lux says. "He never mentioned anything like that, but we can always try."

Before I can say anything else, he walks up to the reception desk.

"Excuse me, can you tell me which room Saw Gerrera is in?"

The nurse eyes him. "Name?"

"Saw Gerrera," Lux repeats.

"Not the patient's name. Your name."

"Oh," he recovers. "Lux Bonteri. B-O-N-T-E-R-I."

"Bonteri," the nurse repeats while she enters Lux's name into her computer. "I'm sorry, Mr. Bonteri. But due to patient privacy laws, I can neither confirm nor deny that the patient you mentioned is here."

Lux exhales. "I understand. Thank you for checking." He says and walks back to where I'm standing. "That didn't go as well as I hoped. Do you have another plan?"

"General Tandin is with him, right?"

"Yes, and so is King Dendup."

"And you know either one of their comm numbers?"

Realization dawns on Lux. "Yes, I do." He pulls the device from his pocket and selects a number I assume belongs to Tandin or to the king. "Look out for a turbolift. Once they say which room he's in, we'll need one."

 **Ahsoka is on the case and so is Lux. Now all they have to do is actually find Saw in the hospital, which is a difficult task if you don't have a room number.**

 **Thank you to McAwsome, Starwarshobbitfics, and Johnt12345 for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	3. Posters of the Sea and Land

**CHAPTER THREE – POSTERS OF THE SEA AND LAND**

 **LUX**

 _"Tandin speaking."_

Thank goodness Tandin picked up his comlink. "General Tandin, it's Lux Bonteri. Ahsoka Tano and I are downstairs by the emergency bay."

Through the comlink, I hear a gut-wrenching shout followed by King Dendup's voice. _"Calm down, son."_

"Is that him?"

 _"It is,"_ Tandin sighs. _"He's very agitated right now. His Majesty and I are trying to get him to explain what's bothering him, but he's not saying."_

Saw's roars reduce in volume and Dendup's voice becomes clearer. _"Of course, Saw. They're on their way. Now, do you need the medical droid to bring you more medication?"_

"What floor are you on?" I ask.

 _"Fourth floor, room 421. We're at the end of the hallway,"_ Tandin says hastily.

"Excellent. We're on our way now. We'll be there in a few minutes." I end the call and glance around for the turbolift, but Ahsoka points the way. "Fourth floor, room 421."

"He's so upset," She worries as we speed into the lift and select the button for the fourth floor. "He doesn't even sound like himself right now."

"He doesn't," I concede. "Hopefully the doctors will find a medication that works. It doesn't sound like he's responding well to whatever he's on at the moment."

The alert bell dings and the turbolift door opens wide.

I don't have to check the room numbers to find Saw. I just have to have eardrums.

A series of urgent shouts come from the far side of the wing. Upon closer inspection, one can see King Dendup pacing and massaging his temples.

"That would be Saw's room." I announce and rush toward the sound, Ahsoka at my side.

King Dendup turns toward us, relief pouring out his face. "Lux, thank goodness…"

"Your Highness." I come to a halt and bow awkwardly, my momentum tossing me forward the slightest bit. Ahsoka, of course, is perfectly put-together. _I swear, she must be using the force when she does that._

"Master Jedi," Dendup nods to Ahsoka. "I appreciate your coming here on such short notice"

"It wasn't an issue," she says, even though I glimpse her face twitch with a different answer. "Your Majesty, I assure you that it's my aim to find these spree killers and bring them to justice before they become a serious threat to Onderon."

The king nods. "Thank you, Master Tano. I only hope Tandin and I can care for Mr. Gerrera properly…"

"How is he?" I ask.

 _"Bonteri, is that you?"_

Dendup gestures into the room. "You'd have to see for yourselves."

He leads the way through the door with me in the middle and Ahsoka taking up the rear.

Saw lays in bed, clad in a hospital gown which does little to keep one warm. A bandage on his forehead covers the few stitches the medical droid put in, and bacta shines on the bruises decorating his skin. I can see the bandages wrapped around his injured leg as he's kicked off his blankets; I can only imagine how many times the king or Tandin tucked him in until they finally gave up.

"It's me." I wave.

"Thought you'd never get back here." He grumbles and nods to Ahsoka. "Hey, commander."

"Hi, Saw." Ahsoka says and walks up to his bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. What I need is to get out of here so I can get it back -." As if to prove his point, Saw pushes himself up and swings his legs over the bed.

Ahsoka places a hand on his arm to stop him, but we're nothing compared to Tandin. He grabs Saw by the shoulders and forces him back into the mattress.

"You heard the doctor." He says. "If you put weight on your leg you'll bleed, and that's the last thing you need. I'm sorry Commander Gerrera, but you're staying here."

"But -."

Tandin tucks Saw back in with one hand.

"Senator Bonteri and Padawan Tano are investigating the incident." King Dendup says. "It's well under control, Saw."

Ahsoka raises an eye marking at Saw. "What is it that you need to get back?"

I have never, not once in my life, seen a person crumble faster.

"I tried to stop him, but that sleemo took it anyway!" Saw pitches forward, Tandin's hand the only thing keeping him upright. "I tried to grab it off the coffee table. He picked it up and put it in his pack."

And then the impossible happens: tears leak out of Saw's eyes with a series of awful, shuddering sobs.

"Oh, Saw…" Ahsoka sits on the edge of his bed and reaches for his hand, but Saw yanks it away.

"What was it?" Dendup asks gently.

"A music box." Saw takes a deep breath. "It-it's Steela's. That one Tandin gave her. It sounds like her when I listen to it. I just know she loved it, and I need to get it back."

Tandin takes a step back in shock and a horrible feeling creeps into me. What kind of person takes a dead woman's music box from her injured, presumably dying brother?

 _The same kind of person who murders people in their own homes._ I tell myself.

"You have to get it back." Saw begs. "I don't know what the heck they want with it, but I know it's hers. Bonteri, Commander, you have to. Nobody else is going to get it back for me. _Please._ It's -." He looks Ahsoka in the eye. "It's the only thing of hers I have left."

"I understand," Ahsoka says. "Saw, if we're going to find the box then we need to know everything you remember about the people who did this to you."

"Close your eyes," Tandin suggests. "It might help."

Saw closes his eyes.

"Now, the people who did this to you. Were they males, or females?"

"Both," Saw mumbles. "A guy and a girl." _A couple?_

"What species were they?" Ahsoka asks.

"The guy was a Twi'lek. Blue." Saw clears his throat. "He was tall and wearing a dark shirt."

"Did you see what color eyes he had?"

"Blue?" Saw shrugs. "Not sure, but they were light. The woman called him Tack or Mack or Jack…think it was Jack."

"What about the woman." Tandn instructs. "What did she look like?"

"Short," Saw grunts. "Blonde hair in pigtails, like for a little girl."

"What was she wearing?" I ask.

"This baggy men's shirt." Saw says. "It was weird…really weird. Hair in pigtails and then a guy's shirt and a hat."

"She might have stuffed her hair into the hat to disguise herself as a man." I whisper to Ahsoka. "That way the police would be looking for two men, not a man and a woman."

"Does she have a name?" Ahsoka asks.

Saw shakes his head and opens his eyes. "I don't remember."

"Close your eyes again," Tandin cuts in. "Let's start over, and go back to the first thing they did. How did they get into your apartment? Was the music box out?"

"They knocked." Saw says. "I asked who it was and they said Galactic Postal Service and they had a delivery. When I opened the door the guy pistol-whipped me and threw me into the wall."

"Was the woman with him?"

"Not yet. She didn't come in until I was on the floor. Her boyfriend told her to go through the house. And then he walked over to the coffee table and grabbed the music box." His voice breaks. "Then his girlfriend came back in and talked to him. He called her Mar."

"Mar? Her name is Mar?" King Dendup prompts.

Saw nods wildly. "Her name is Mar, and she's holding a holo in her hand; the one Dono took of me and Steela in front of the ruping pens. Why does she want a holo of me and my sister?"

Ahsoka raises an eye marking at me. _Sounds like there's no end to the questions of the day today._

The waterworks start up again. "I tried to get it back and he shot me." He says. "The girl dropped the holo, but he put the box in his holster. Why did they want it?"

"Saw," Dendup suggests. "The doctors warned that the medication could have this side effect. Why don't you take a nap while we talk in the hallway?"

"I'm fine."

"Sleep." This time, Dendup's voice leaves no room for negotiation. "That is an order from your king."

Even an anxious, medicated Saw recognizes Dendup's authority. He leans back against the bed and yanks his blankets up to cover his shoulder. "Fine."

"Rest well," Dendup says, pats Saw's shoulder, and shepherds us out the door and down the hallway a little.

"How bad are the injuries?" I ask.

"With rest and proper care, he'll be fine." Tandin explains. "Getting him to rest is another story."

"Lux's and my investigation should take the edge off some of that." Ahsoka says. "But let's be honest. We might want to start looking for a duplicate music box."

"That's not possible." Tandin blurts out all at once, then collects himself again. "I... I gave it to her; it was a family heirloom and it's irreplaceable. We need to find this exact music box, and we need to find it quickly. Might they try to sell it?"

"I don't think they'll get rid of it," I say. "It sounds like they took it because they liked it."

"All right, so they still have it. Before we can worry about getting it back, we have to catch the attackers," Ahsoka cracks her knuckles.

"Female Twi'lek and male human couples are a dime a dozen, but couples where the human is female are rarer." Tandin says. "That should get you two somewhere."

"And we have names. Name fragments, at least."

Those won't get us anywhere. I can think of at least four possible first names for "Mar": Mary, Marina, Marlene, and Tamara. That's not even counting all the possible options if it's her surname.

"I'll contact someone at the Temple to start in on the research." Ahsoka says. "The fact that these killers are a couple worries me. There was a couple on Alderraan who robbed fuel stations and killed the people inside."

"Bonnie and Clyde?" I ask.

"Yes, that's them." Ahsoka clarifies. "According to the data file the Temple sent me, our killers have killed at least two other people on Ryloth. We were able to link the murders with the slugthrower."

"Then the slugthrower is our start. It's better than trying to track down two syllables for names."

Ahsoka looks into Saw's room.

"Whatever we do, we'd better hurry." She says. "Judging by the way those two acted, I'm worried we may have another Bonnie and Clyde on our hands."

…

On one of Iziz's secondary streets. Mar drags her heels on the way to the spaceport.

"You said this was the planet." She argues. "You promised we'd stop here."

"How was I supposed to know that guy was the Senator's best friend?" Jack demands.

"You saw the name on the directory! You could have just used the HoloNet to check." Mar snaps, crossing her arms over her chest. "I was just starting to like it here, too."

"You grabbed the holo yourself. That guy was a folk hero. You want to be the person who killed a folk hero?" he whispers. "And don't even get me started on the other guy! If we hadn't sealed it already, we definitely messed up twice here."

Mar throws up her hands, palms up.

"Fine. You win, for now." She grumbles. "We're running out of time, Jack. It's time to pick a planet and stick with it, not to be waffling around and hopping planets every two days."

"I know. And we are. You remember when we left Ryloth and you said it was better to go inward, because it was safer?"

"I do."

"Well, you're getting your wish."

"Where are we going now?"

Jack readjusts the pack over his shoulders. "Word gets around fast in a small town." He says. "But in a city as big as we're going, no one notices two little people all by themselves."

 **And that's not good.**

 **Thank you to starwarshobbitfics, Rose Ravenclaw, McAwsome, TessaFred, and TafaniG for your reviews. A response to TafaniG, because you are a guest and therefore I can't PM you: While that's a great idea, I already have the story written and just have to edit the chapters as I go. You will see however, that Jack and Mar's motives go beyond simple thrill-killing.**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	4. Come, You Spirits

**CHAPTER FOUR – COME, YOU SPIRITS**

 **AHSOKA**

"Ahsoka, would you like cream or sugar?"

I take my eyes from my datapad. "Black is fine, Lux. Thanks."

On the other side of his kitchen, Lux pours two mugs of caf and adds cream to one. He picks up both cups, takes them over to the table and sets the black one in front of me.

"Our breakfast should be done soon." He says, looking at the microwave where he placed a plate of heat-and-eat sausage, and the toaster where slices of bread should be emerging any minute now.

"Thanks," I take a sip of caf and sigh as I feel the caffeine seep into my system. When you can't get a good night's sleep, black caf is a necessity. "All right, back to business. What do we have on Bonnie and Clyde?"

"First, the list of victims." Lux taps the screen of his datapad. "First is a Twi'lek named Rassk. He was found in his apartment in Lessu a week and a half ago. He'd been shot in the chest with a slugthrower. Three days later, another young, male Twi'lek was killed in his apartment with a slugthrower. The ballistics report says the bullets came from the same gun as the one from Saw's leg." He looks up. "Of all things, why a slugthrower? Blasters don't leave bullets, and bullets are the evidence connecting these crimes."

"Slugthrowers don't show up on weapons scans." I say. "All they would need to do is wrap it in a shirt and stuff it in the bottom of their bags, and no one would be the wiser. Bounty hunters sometimes use them when they're trying to infiltrate a high-security area."

"So it wouldn't have been flagged if they took a commercial flight to Onderon." Lux rubs a hand through his forehead. "That makes finding their tickets and where they cleared customs much harder."

Finding those name fragments in the incredible amount of space tickets would be a nightmare. Factor in the possibility they might have taken connecting flights, and the situation worsens.

"I think we need help. We can't do all the research and all the investigation by ourselves."

"I agree. I just don't know who to call." Lux says. "Saw's in the hospital, and he's terrible at doing research anyway."

A faint memory from the rebellion pops into my mind. "What about the guy who did the research for Steela and Saw during the rebellion? The cashier?"

"Hutch St. James? The last anyone heard from him, he was on vacation. I tried to contact him, but his comlink doesn't have service wherever he is." He snorts. "I bet you anything he's on the moons of Rion, sipping a cold drink on the beach."

I consider asking how Hutch manages to take what's no doubt an expensive trip on a cashier's salary, but I decide I don't want to know the answer. _All right, so he's out. Who else do we know who has constant access to computers and is willing to sit through an unbelievable amount of research?_

The toast pops just as a mental lightbulb goes off.

"I think I know just the person," I say, grabbing my comlink.

"Really? Who?" Lux asks.

"Let's hope she answers."

I press the numbers into my comlink and wait, crossing my fingers. Please let her pick up. Please, please, please…

 _"Hello Ahsoka."_

Thank the force. "Barriss! How are you?"

 _"I'm well,"_ Barriss says, sounding entirely content. _"I've been studying in the Archives today. I heard you were assigned a new mission."_

Perfect, just perfect. "I was. Can you do me a favor? Are any of the Archive computer terminals open?"

 _"They are,"_ she replies, her voice ten times more skeptical. _"Why do you need to know?"_

"Great. Barriss, can you please do me a favor? Can you get on one of those terminals and pull up the passenger manifests for all direct flights from Ryloth to Onderon in the last week?"

 _"Why do you need to know?"_ she repeats.

Time to spill the beans. "I'm on Onderon. There have been a rash of murders and we think the killers traveled here from Ryloth in that time period."

Barriss clears her throat. _"Which company?"_

 _Barriss, words cannot describe how grateful I am right now._ "Senator Bonteri and I don't know. Can you pull all flights?"

 _"I am,"_ she says. _"But it's worth noting that the Jedi only archive major spacelines and cargo shipments. I can't account for any kind of private transportation."_

"That's all right; just pull what you can."

Barriss pauses. _"I've accessed the passenger manifests and crew schedules for direct Ryloth to Onderon flights in the last seven days. There are more than I thought."_

"Were any of those tickets bought by someone with a first name 'Jack'?"

 _"Over a hundred."_

We're starting to get somewhere. "Were any of them traveling with a female companion?"

 _"Most of them were alone. The rest were either traveling with an entire family, or they're children."_

"Great." I sigh under my breath. "Thank you, Barriss."

My best friend reads my mind all the way from Coruscant. _"I'll keep looking and contact you if I find anything."_

"Barriss, you're a lifesaver."

 _"Say hello to Senator Bonteri for me, Ahsoka."_ She says sweetly and ends the transmission.

Lux plucks the pieces of toast from the toaster and opens a container of jam, spreading a generous amount of the red goo over each piece. My mouth waters.

"I guess the ticket idea didn't work out."

"Barriss will find something soon." I assure. "I've never seen someone who can study like she can. Until then, I guess we just have to go back to whatever we were doing."

Lux sets a plate of jellied toast and a few of the sausage links from the microwave in front of me.

"We were having breakfast."

I grab my fork and tuck into the food. I didn't even realize how hungry I was until I saw my breakfast. "Thanks for cooking this for me."

"It was my pleasure," he says and sits down across from me with his own plate. "It's nice having someone to eat with; these days I usually eat alone."

I glance around his apartment. "Do any of your friends come over?"

"Saw does every Friday," he admits. "We have hamburgers or something similar and watch the news. Hutch has shown up a few times, but he's mostly occupied with work or whatever he does in his spare time." He makes a flippant gesture with his hand.

"I'm guessing it has something to do with paying for this mysterious vacation?"

"Almost certainly."

I go back to my plate.

"So, how's your training been?" Lux asks after a pause.

"It's coming along." I swallow a bite of sausage. "I hope I'll be recommended for the Trials soon."

Lux blinks. "The Trials?"

"You know, the tests necessary to become a Jedi Knight?"

"Right. Those Trials." He says, even though it doesn't take a Jedi to notice he hadn't a clue. "Wow! I didn't know you were so close to those. When do you think you'll be knighted?"

"I don't know for sure. Master Skywalker has to recommend me first, and then if the Council agrees they'll schedule the dates for the five trials. Though, ever since the war started they've been waiving some of the formal trials if a Padawan passed them in the field." I say.

Lux picks up his piece of toast. "Well, I can think of some instances. What are the Trials?"

I rack my memory banks. "Trial of Skill, Trial of the Flesh, Trial of Insight, Trial of Courage, and the Trial of the Spirit."

He smiles. "I can vouch for your Trial of Courage being the moment you stepped in at King Dendup's execution."

"Lux, the Jedi Council would censure me before they allowed that to be my Trial of Courage."

"Right. I was just joking."

"If there was a Trial of _Restraint,_ I think the Carlaac incident would do well in its place." I joke.

Lux turns red. "Right. Carlaac. Ah, I think you're right. Thank you for restraining yourself with me."

The fantasies I had of dragging Lux through the snow and back onto the ship, lecturing and yelling at him all the way flash through my mind.

 _Careful not to choke on your stupidity._

I planned that line as I cooked the soup with the other women. I paid less attention to the task as I did coming up with the perfect witty thing to hiss at Lux that would sum up all my anger and frustration. I asked Tryla for her input, but all she did was shrug.

I even practiced in front of the soup bowl.

" _Careful_ _not to **choke** on your stupidity," I said to the dishes. Nope, the inflection wasn't quite right. _

" _ **Careful**_ _not to choke on your_ _ **stupidity!"**_

 _A-ha. Perfect. I repeated it, looking at my reflection in the soup to get the perfect facial expression to go along with it._

 _It was then that I noticed one of the Ming Po women staring at me like I'd just sprouted a second head._

" _Is something wrong?" I asked frostily._

 _The woman kept staring until one of her friends elbowed her in the ribs and they went back to stirring the soup cauldrons._

"You made up for it later." I tell him and go back to my food, which is markedly better than whatever the Ming Po and I slapped together in the tents.

Lux shakes his head. "I don't know what I was thinking."

I decide to be honest. "You weren't."

He nods assent. "That's probably true."

Well look at that.

"Whatever you were thinking, it's in the past." I say. "What matters now is that you're moving forward with your life. You've made friends and you're willing to help them when they need it."

"Her music box." He sighs. "Out of everything Saw has, I never expected him to need us to find that. Tandin gave it to her near the end of the rebellion, and she loved it. I remember I was jealous; I just got a ring."

I rack my memory banks, but try as I might I can't remember Steela receiving a gift. Must have been focused on our tasks, I guess.

"Ever since she died, Saw keeps it like a treasure." He says plainly. "It's usually on his nightstand and he listens to it before he goes to sleep. I don't know why he brought it to the coffee table that day but he did."

"I don't remember what it looks like."

Lux opens his datapad's camera roll and shuffles through a few photos. "Here's one. Let me zoom in and crop it."

He turns the 'pad toward me, showing off an image of Saw in his room, the box on his nightstand. I order myself to focus on the design: gold-colored, with a bejeweled lid surrounding a circular gold plate.

"I'll send the photo to you," Lux volunteers and taps a few buttons. My datapad buzzes with the notification.

"Thank you," I save the photo to my camera roll.

"We need to get it back as soon as possible."

"What we really need to do is stop this murder spree. The box comes second to that, maybe even third place if we start to deal with bureaucracies." I remind him.

"You're right about the killings. I'm just not sure you understand the rest," Lux coughs. "Saw, he ah, he needs it. To sleep."

There's something a little unnerving about this revelation, if only that I find it a little creepy.

"He hasn't talked to anyone," Lux clarifies. "Not to me, to a counselor, to King Dendup – we've all let him know our doors are open, but he just isn't willing to talk. Saw can't lose the only thing that reminds him of her."

I feel a pang in my heart: my men dividing up their fallen brothers' paltry possessions, staring at them like their owner would spring forth to reclaim that prized novel or doodled-in reg manual or deck of sabaac cards.

"I understand." I give Lux a weak smile. "We'll get it back for him, I'm sure of it. Now, back to the slugthrower -."

Just then, my comlink rings.

"Barriss, I love you." I mutter under my breath and answer. "Hello?"

 _"Ahsoka, what was that HoloNet program you made me watch with you on Halloween called?"_

"It was _The Walking Dead._ Why?"

I can hear Barriss' smile in her voice. _"I just found out how they got from Ryloth to Onderon without being detected."_

 **And what does _The Walking Dead_ have anything to do with Bonnie and Clyde here? Last I checked, they weren't zombies.  
**

 **Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics and TessaFred for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	5. By the Pricking of My Thumbs

**CHAPTER FIVE – BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS**

 **LUX**

Ahsoka asks what I'm thinking. "Barriss, how does _The Walking Dead_ have anything to do with how the killers got from Ryloth to Onderon?"

 _"How do you get a ship ticket if you don't have money?"_

Ahsoka bites. "How?"

 _"You use someone else's."_ Barriss says, the obviousness of it making me want to smack myself in the face. _"As I was checking the passenger manifests, something caught my attention. Do you remember someone named Rassk?"_

The name rings a bell. I scroll back in my datapad. "That was the first victim on Ryloth."

 _"You're correct, Senator Bonteri. Rassk was the first victim, whose credit card charges lasted longer than his life."_ Her voice changes. _"It's sad, really."_

"Credit card charges?" Ahsoka prompts.

 _"Right. According to the friend who discovered the body, a few things were missing from Rassk's apartment. Two of those things were his wallet and a cache of credits hidden under his mattress."_

Looks like Rassk never thought beyond the most obvious hiding places.

"Is he a blue Twi'lek?" I ask.

 _"He is."_

"So Bonnie and Clyde stole Rassk's identification and money and used both to buy the ticket." I muse. "Who was seated next to him?"

 _"Two men. But something else popped up as well: Dinah O'Donnel is a spice merchant who traveled to Ryloth on business, and she apparently made her flight back on time. The reason I say 'apparently' is because she filed a report with spaceport security saying someone stole her purse and boarding pass in the public refresher. When she tried to retrieve it, the person hit her in the head and knocked her unconscious."_

"That sounds like the girlfriend's handiwork." Ahsoka muses.

 _"I thought that too. This is all I have for now, but I'll be in touch if I find something else."_ Barriss says, and signs off.

Ahsoka turns back toward me. "It sounds like our Bonnie and Clyde, all right. At Saw's apartment Clyde attacked and Bonnie robbed. With the tickets, it's the same thing."

I scroll back through my datapad. "I think we should pay a visit to Saw's apartment. We need to get a better understanding of why these thieves wanted him."

…

I push the crime scene tape away from Saw's front door and hold it up.

"After you."

"Thanks," Ahsoka ducks under the tape and steps into Saw's living room. "So, Saw was sitting on the couch with the television on…" She moves over to the couch. "Steela's pistol was on the table, but besides that there isn't much of value here."

I look around the room. Saw's sagging couch, an armchair he got from a garage sale, and a lamp serve as the room's decorations. He has a few work holopads scattered about along with some random refuse, but nothing worth taking.

"He says Bonnie didn't spend a lot of time in here. We should check the rest of the place."

"I'll take the bedroom if you'll take the kitchen." She volunteers.

"Deal." I doubt Saw did his dishes before he was attacked, but I can deal with a little dirt. After all it can't be that large of a stop, it's the _kitchen_ after all.

I walk through the kitchen door and glance around the counters. Nothing except a half-eaten bagel.

Next stop, the cupboards. Yes, all the dishes are in place. All the forks and knives are in the drawer, just like Saw likes them. And the cupboards designated for food -

I check again.

 _Where's Saw's food?_

Anyone who knows Saw Gerrera knows that he believes in three food groups: Meat, carbs, and instant food. When Dono brought up the radical suggestion of eating salad once in a while, he almost tripped over himself protesting the idea.

The pantry is almost bare. No boxed macaroni and cheese, no cans of nuna-noodle soup, none of that powder that one mixes into water to form bread that tastes like dust. Not even a measly box of ration bars.

Saw wouldn't let his pantry get this bare without running to the market to replenish it. _Did Bonnie and Clyde steal his food?_

Just to be sure, I swing open the refrigerator. It only houses a carton of blue milk, some TV dinners, and a twelve-pack of beer but that's typical Saw. Nothing seems to be missing here. The pantry, however, is another story.

"Lux?"

Ahsoka stands in the doorway, a hand on her hip.

"Will you check something out in the bedroom? I think some of Saw's clothes are missing."

"His food is definitely gone." I shut the refrigerator door. "He never lets his pantry go absolutely bare."

Ahsoka leads the way into the bedroom and flips open a wooden trunk. Inside are a few pairs of socks and underwear, a ragged T-shirt, and a pair of pants.

"I don't see his vest or his armor plates," Ahsoka comments "But he might have been wearing them during the attack. Is anything else missing?"

I experimentally shove the clothing aside. "I don't see the blue collared shirt I gave to him for his birthday. And he owns more than one pair of pants for sure."

"I can't find a laundry hamper or even a pile." Something on the nightstand catches her eye, and she strides over to pick something up.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Pills, and a velvet sheath," she mutters and turns the container around. "Do you know why Saw would be taking codeine?"

"It's legitimate," I explain. "Before you and your masters arrived to help us, he fell off a Tee-muss and injured his shoulder. It never really healed properly. When the injury flares up he needs to take the medicine again."

"Must have been having a flare-up," Ahsoka mumbles. "He got this filled two days ago. It's almost completely full."

She sets the bottle back on the nightstand and picks up the sheath.

"Do you have any idea what this is?"

I get a bad taste in my mouth. "No," I lie.

"Lux, what is it?"

"A sheath," I say. "A sheath for the heirloom Tandin gave to Saw."

Ahsoka's mouth snaps shut, and we reach an unspoken consensus: Don't. Tell. Tandin.

"This just gets stranger and stranger." I muse.

"How?"

"That holo of Steela that Bonnie showed to Clyde. Saw kept it right here on the nightstand, so there's no way she just didn't notice the pills. The thieves took food, clothes, heirlooms, and a gun; they pass up expensive electronics and a controlled substance that sells high on the black market. Why would you do that?"

"Ex convicts needing a change of clothes?"

"How would a man and woman meet in jail? And why did a holo make Clyde change his mind about killing Saw?" I pull Saw's nightstand drawer out to reveal the collection of holos he thinks I don't know about. I press the button on one.

There's a three-year-old Saw, holding a newborn Steela like she's a tooka.

Saw and Steela, sleeping in sleeping bags.

Saw, maybe five years old, all dressed up in first-day-of-school attire.

The next holo is of me, smiling in blissful ignorance of the practical joke about to play out.

 _"Hey Bonteri! You need to get your holo taken for the records." Saw snapped, carrying a camera._

 _"Okay. What do you want me to do?"_

 _He gestured to the nearest building. "Just stand up against the wall and smile."_

 _I stood against the wall and smiled. Saw lifted the camera and was about to press the button to capture the image when I heard something above me._

 _I looked up too late, and a bucketful of freezing cold water slapped me in the face._

 _Saw snapped the photo, laughing. "Ha! You should see the look on your face."_

 _I turned red, and not from the cold water._

 _"That wasn't funny!" I yelled, and chased after Saw until I couldn't go on any longer._

"Saw never struck me as sentimental," Ahsoka says, clicking through another holo, this one of Saw's parents.

"He really isn't, but he liked holos." I concede. "That one of me was part of a prank, and the others he and Steela held onto."

"That prank apparently happened to Dono too." Ahsoka points out, showing me a holo of a soaking-wet Dono. "And from Steela's expression in the background, I'm willing to bet she was the one holding the bucket."

"She was." I reminisce. "We didn't figure it out until we realized she was the only one who hadn't been soaked. The next morning, all of us dumped a bucket on her when she came out of the barracks."

A smile twitches on Ahsoka's lips. "Fives played a prank on a batch of shinies a while back." She says. "He took a recording from a horror movie, hid a speaker in the shower room vents, and told the shinies the showers were haunted."

I can only imagine the chaos that would come from a "haunted" shower room. Every communal shower experience I know has been awkward unless there were privacy walls. Horror movie sounds coming from the vents would make me seriously consider washing myself in the sink for the rest of my life.

"I wager that didn't go over well."

"By the time Rex finally found the speaker and convinced the shinies that nothing supernatural was going on, they were either taking their blasters into the shower with them or taking birdbaths in the sink." She rolls her eyes. "It wasn't hard to find out who did it; Fives was in stitches the whole time. And Master Kenobi wonders why we never get anything done when we're off-duty."

"Pranks among men, there's nothing like it."

"Amen. But anyway," she says, lifting the holo from the living room so she can see it. "These holos only make sense in context. To Bonnie and Clyde they're just a bunch of pictures of people they don't know."

She holds the holo of Saw and Steela in front of her chest.

"Look at this picture. If you were Bonnie, what jumps out at you right away?"

I look closer. The image is of Saw and Steela in front of the ruping pens, his elbow casually propped on her shoulder.

"It's two rebels in a camp," I say lamely, not knowing what else to tell her.

"Good start. To a native Onderonian, the rebels are considered heroes. But Bonnie and Clyde are off-worlders, so that doesn't apply. What we have here is proof that Saw is the wrong kind of victim for them."

"Ahsoka, they've gone after bachelors living by themselves. Saw fits the bill perfectly."

"No," she shakes the holo. "When Bonnie saw this, she didn't know Steela was dead. From her perspective, this holograph is proof that Saw has a family. He isn't some bachelor that nobody's going to miss or care about if he's gone. He's a brother, and if they killed him his sister would never stop looking for the ones responsible. All in all, killing him would be a bad decision."

I nod, kicking myself for not making the connection. "Families always complicate matters when it comes to getting away with murder." I know that firsthand.

"Right. Which is why the targets have been bachelors. No families means no one's needling the investigators about the case, and it'll eventually go cold. We're lucky they picked Saw; if they didn't we probably wouldn't have noticed what they were doing."

I cross my arms. "So we're looking for a couple who want to get away scot-free for their crimes, own a slugthrower, and don't harm men with families."

That gets us nowhere, and Ahsoka knows it.

"Hopefully Barriss will come through with her research." She says, setting the picture back.

My comlink rings.

"It's General Tandin." I flip open the comlink. "Lux Bonteri speaking."

 _"Senator Bonteri, are you and Commander Tano still at Saw's house?"_

"We are." A cold feeling creeps into my bones. "Is Saw all right, General? Is something wrong?"

 _"Saw is fine,"_ Tandin reassures. _"I need you to meet my men in the third block south of Malagan Market. I'm sending the address to you as we speak."_

"Third block south of Malagan Market? That's residential."

 _"I'm aware. One of my men responded to a report of a noise disturbance and requested immediate backup. We have another body."_

 **Jack and Mar don't waste time when it comes to murder.  
**

 **Thank you to TessaFred, Rose Ravenclaw, and Starwarshobbitfics for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	6. Double Double, Toil and Trouble

**CHAPTER SIX – DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE**

 **AHSOKA**

"The victim's name is Vern Kassel."

I cast my eyes down to the body covered by a white shroud, blood staining the sheet. "Single gunshot wound from a slugthrower bullet?"

The militiaman nods. "Straight through the heart. Vern didn't have a chance."

"Rassk was shot in the head and the other Twi'lek in the heart again. Whoever's holding the slugthrower is taking deadly aim."

"Then they definitely intended to keep Saw alive. If Clyde can shoot like this, I wouldn't wager it was just a bad shot." Lux chews his lip. "Ahsoka, do you think they have military training?"

"I can't speak for Bonnie, but Clyde? Maybe. The military isn't the only way to learn how to hold a gun; considering the brutality of the recent crimes, I'd say he's definitely a criminal." I kneel down to inspect Vern Kassel's face. "He died with his eyes open. Poor guy. Officer, was anything missing from the house?"

"Not much. Some food, clothes, and credit chips. If they were trying to rob him they didn't do a very good job."

"Just like Saw's apartment. What information do we have about the victim?"

"I can do better than that," the militiaman says. "I knew him. Vern worked down in evidence. Quiet guy, lived alone. He made small talk whenever we went to check something in or out."

That means every militiaman in Iziz had at least a casual relationship with Vern. _Great._ The last thing we need is the militia's objectivity to be compromised. No one likes cop killers.

"Did he let on that he lived alone?"

"Besides that he was on every dating site known to the universe?"

Lux retraces his steps back out the kitchen and out the front door.

"Lux, what are you doing?" The Force isn't giving me any helpful hints as to what Lux's intentions might be leaving the crime scene, but most of his ideas have been solid. I turn my attention back to the militiaman. "Was there any sign of a blaster in here?"

"Nope" he confirms, pointing to a slugthrower round low on the wall. "My guess is whoever made it tried to shoot Vern, missed, and then got their nerve back up."

"Clyde was always holding the gun," I muse. "Officer, this mark, what type of slugthrower do you think it was made by?"

The officer gives me a pitying look. "If you think I can identify slugthrower bullets without a microscope, you might as well call me an expert on lightsabers. Those guns are older than dirt; nobody uses them anymore."

"Ahsoka?" Lux calls from outside. "Look at the front walk. He definitely let on that he was single."

 _How?_ "It looks like a normal yard to me."

"For starters there are no decorations."

"So?"

"Soka, if you think back to my yard, you will remember there are also no decorations. My mother had these statues she liked to put in the gardens, and I loathed them. When I had both my own place and a reasonable chance of staying put, I deliberately avoided lawn decorations. It's something for couples and families to do, not single people."

"Okay, so he's not going to win any decorating awards. What else?"

"In the garbage," Lux segues, flipping the lid open. "Instant noodles, TV dinners, and takeout containers. That could mean anything, because rare is the person who works a ten-hour shift and wants to cook, but there's only one of everything. It's clear there's only one person eating here and by extension, there's only one person living here."

"Nice job," I have to commend him on his sleuthing, even if I wouldn't have left the crime scene immediately.

"He didn't hesitate last time," Lux says. "Maybe they're having a change of heart?"

"Not enough for my taste. It hasn't even been two days since they attacked Saw. I don't even want to know what they'll do next."

"General Tandin has ordered an all-points bulletin for these two," the militiaman speaks up. "And His Majesty's offered a hefty reward for anyone with information. If anyone's seen them, five thousand credits should get them talking."

Five thousand credits. "I'm surprised the tip lines aren't ringing off the hook."

Another militiaman finishes affixing crime scene tape around Vern's fence and announces "They are."

"On the chance that doesn't turn up anything useful, what else do we have? A slugthrower bullet, shady transport tickets, and stolen heirlooms." I rub my temples. On the way here, I thought this would be an easy mission; I've hunted down criminals before. None of them, however, have been so very good at covering their tracks. If they hadn't spared Saw, then we would never have caught on to them.

"In terms of physical evidence, yes," Lux agrees. "But we also have behavior."

I mentally count to ten. "Behavior? Lux, is it possible you watched one too many crime procedurals last night?"

The look on his face gives me all the answer I need. "It is a sound science, Ahsoka. We've been working with it ever since we figured out why they left Saw alive."

"Yes, but that's different than switching the entire track of the investigation!"

"Do you have a better idea?"

I think for a while.

"Not really. Officer, please finish packing up the scene. Senator Bonteri and I have some investigating to do."

…

Lux rubs his temples in frustration. "Ahsoka, has it occurred to you that the last few days have been straight out of a bad crime procedural?"

"Last I checked, characters in crime procedurals don't do their work at your kitchen table," I point out, blowing on my steaming mug of tea. "All right, from the top. What do we have?"

Lux sips his tea and begins to read from his datapad, where we've cobbled together our absolute best guess at who these criminals are.

"The people responsible for this spree murder are a romantic couple consisting of a Twi'lek male and a human female. Based on Saw Gerrera's witness testimony and the rash, disorganized nature of the first two crime scenes, we believe they are in their late teens to early twenties.

"They're in possession of a slugthrower. Since slugthrowers don't show up on weapons scans, we believe this is a precaution on their part, and if we were to find this gun either the serial number has been filed off or it too is stolen." He looks up from the datapad. "Is that everything?"

"Everything about their demographics and their weapons. Keep reading."

"All right," Lux nods. "Continuing. So far the male has been doing all the shooting, and considering his aim he either has military or law enforcement experience, or more likely a long criminal record. He's probably committed violent crimes like assault, battery, or even homicide."

"And his girlfriend?"

"I was getting to that; I just had to scroll down." He clears his throat. "The female of the group is a thief who probably has a record of petty theft, pickpocketing, shoplifting, or burglary. So far she hasn't killed any of the victims, but as she becomes more comfortable with weapons and killing, she may become as dangerous as her boyfriend. And that's it. That's all we can theorize about these criminals." He stirs his own mug of tea with one hand and sets down the datapad with the other. "We need to go over the physical evidence again; maybe they slipped up and left a fingerprint in one of the crime scenes."

"We know Bonnie's too smart to go in without gloves and Saw said Clyde didn't touch anything but the gun and the box. Fat chance there, they're definitely making it hard…" a lightbulb goes off.

Lux notices. "What is it?"

"Something isn't right here," I note. "Everyone knows Ryloth's police force is a joke; you can practically get away with anything. Why would they go to Onderon if they're getting away with murder on Ryloth?"

"Evolution?" Lux suggests. "Maybe they perfected their method and they wanted to try it out in a riskier setting for the thrill of it."

"This isn't thrill-killing; it's too cautious. Saw says that Bonnie didn't show her face until Clyde had completely subdued him. If Clyde was so concerned about Bonnie, then moving to a place where they could be arrested makes no sense."

Lux nods. "They go after bachelors who they think won't be missed. Bonnie waits outside while Clyde does the dangerous part. She does the thefts so no one will connect the crimes. They only steal low-cost items so insurance companies don't egg on the police in an investigation. She wears a man's shirt as a disguise. _Everything_ is set up so they won't get caught, unless they were caught pawning the heirlooms, which I don't think they want to."

"But why does someone move from a low-risk area to a high-risk area if they don't want to get caught?"

Lux's mug freezes in mid-sip.

"Soka, you said they committed two murders on Ryloth?"

"Yes," I agree, my fingers already scrolling through the files. "There were two, a bachelor named Rassk and a second victim, an apothecary named … oh, no."

On planets like Ryloth, finding medical help is like finding a snowflake on Mustafar. Bottles of over-the-counter antibiotics are priceless, and basic bacta treatments saved many a life during Cham Syndulla's campaign. Someone with medical knowledge, even basic apothecary skills, would be the town hero.

Lux catches it too. "I'm going to make a wild guess here and say that the locals were scouring the town for whoever killed their apothecary."

"If a whole town transformed into an angry mob isn't a high-risk environment, I don't know what is."

"This isn't good," Lux frets. "If they're concerned about the locals heating up the investigation, then they've attacked the worst two people possible! No one likes cop killers – and _Saw Gerrera?"_

"Turn on the news."

"What?" he chokes.

"The news, Lux! They would hear about it through the news!" I cry, scrambling for the television remote and switching it on to the HoloNet news while shooting a prayer to the Force. _Please Force, please let the news be covering salacious celebrity gossip. I'll even take a slam story about the Jedi or the GAR – anything but the murder! Just please let them go on and on about nothing instead of announcing that –_

My hopes are dashed on the headline rolling across the screen: BELOVED OFFICER SLAIN IN BRUTAL HOME INVASION.

"I hate my life," I groan.

Lux is way ahead of me, already dialing his comlink. "Advisor Cree, give me General Tandin … yes, now! It's an emergency. Thank you … General Tandin, we need a full media blackout. Under no circumstances should any of your men release information to the press."

"It's too late now," I shout, hoping Tandin can hear me through Lux's comlink while I dial my own. "Tandin, ground all flights. No one gets offworld unless they've been cleared, and use the strictest protocols you have. Alert security that they should look out for a Twi'lek man and a human woman traveling as a couple."

 _"You think they'd try to leave the planet?"_ Tandin asks.

"They'd have better odds killing on a planet that isn't actively investigating the attack on a beloved idol and the murder of a cop!"

 _"I'm calling it in immediately,"_ Tandin says and ends the transmission, presumably to free up his comlink to ground the flights and shut up the media.

Perfect for us. "Lux, call the king and tell him what's going on; Tandin might needs a royal order to ground the flights. Do you know how old this news story is?"

 _"For all of you just tuning in, Officer Vern Kassel was brutally murdered in this home this morning,"_ the anchor says. _"We are the only channel with live coverage of the event as we arrived here on the scene approximately ten minutes after leading detectives left…"_

I look at the clock. Four hours have passed since Lux and I left Vern Kassel's home. If Bonnie and Clyde are trying to get offworld, they're not getting tickets at the moment – they're already getting on their flight.

"Lux, to the spaceport. Hurry!"

…

The lines of disgruntled passengers snake around the airport. Security officials and militiamen try to calm the masses.

An angry Rodian has dared to ask Tandin "Do you know who I am?"

But the anger, or Tandin's snappy comeback, doesn't matter.

Bonnie and Clyde are gone.

 **Ahsoka and Lux are in double trouble for sure now. There's a whole wide galaxy these two could have gone to.**

 **Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics, RoseRavenclaw (oh, and thanks for my new title! I'll have to put my Epic Master of AUs scepter with my Theory Queen crown), TessaFred and Johnt12345 for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	7. Fire, Burn and Cauldron, Bubble

**CHAPTER SEVEN – FIRE, BURN AND CAULDRON, BUBBLE**

 **AHSOKA**

"They must have left directly after killing Officer Kassel," Tandin says in the corner of the spaceport. "Everyone's identification cleared. I'm sorry to say this, Lux, but if they're not on the planet the investigation is out of my hands."

"It's not out of the Jedi's," I inform him, smiling and pulling a credit chip from my pocket. "Lux, I hope you have enough for a ticket. We're going to find out where they went, and then it's time for a field trip."

…

"Okay, so they left Ryloth because they've caused a witch hunt. How they're leaving Onderon because again, they've caused a witch hunt. So where do they go now?"

"If I had to guess?" Lux suggests. "Somewhere they aren't likely to start a witch hunt."

Words cannot describe how much I want to punch Lux right now.

Luckily Tandin intervenes and holds up a datapad. "I have the schedule for all the flights that took off after Officer Kassel's death. I'm putting out an alert to immigration officials for all the planets, but I'd rather you two not wait for that information to get through the backlog and have our murderous friends kill another bachelor. So as Senator Bonteri said, where would these two not be likely to start a witch hunt?"

"Dathomir?"

"You're not funny, Lux."

He brushes off my comment. "In all seriousness, they would pick a world where their victims wouldn't be missed. Did any of the flights leave for Hutt Space?"

"That would be counterproductive. Sure, Hutt Space may be lawless but they're looking for somewhere with a little more safety and infrastructure. Somewhere they could just disappear instead of having to move planets."

"So we're looking for a planet where people will go missing so a single bachelor won't be missed, no one will notice our Bonnie and Clyde, and that has a readily available crowd for them to disappear into at any given time." Lux rubs his chin. "What kind of planet would that be?"

The perfect planet hits me like a ton of duracrete. "Think about it, Lux."

Tandin knows it too. "A commercial vessel bound for that destination took off two hours ago and there should be one boarding as we speak."

I hold my hand out and Lux deposits his credit card in my hand. I zoom over to the nearest ticket counter and hand the card to the seller.

"Two for your next flight to Coruscant. I don't care what class they're in, as long as they're open."

…

The two seats left on the transport are right next to each other, which is more than I expected. They're also in economy class, which confuses Lux a little. And what's more, he's seated right in front of a small child.

"Not a fan of kids?" I whisper after the kid kicks his seatback.

"I like kids," he protests. "I just don't like being kicked in the back."

"Not many do," I lean back in my own seat. "Okay, back to seriousness. Tandin put an alert out to security, but we both know that immigration officials can't stop every blue Twi'lek and blonde human who walks through their doors. What's the plan of attack?"

"Warn all the bachelors on Coruscant?" he nixes the idea. "That's wishful thinking if I ever heard it. If anything we'll drive them even deeper into hiding. Actually, the first thing we need to do is make sure the police droids don't alert the media to them. The more complacent these two are, the better."

"And once they're complacent, maybe we could lure them into a trap once we find out what they want," I realize. "Good idea. Now we just have to find out what they want."

Lux winces as the kid kicks the back of his seat again. "Like all serial burglars, I think the promise of money or valuables would be a sufficient lure."

"No, these two are different than the others. They take essentials and novelties instead of valuables, and they only take enough of them to last until they get to the next house. They don't act like normal serial burglars; they're more like … migrants."

"Migrants don't operate on deadlines unless they're looking for work, which these two aren't. We already established they're trying to meet one." he points out.

"Maybe that's why they're traveling."

Lux thinks for a while, then decides to cry uncle.

"How is a deadline forcing them to migrate?"

"I think they want a house."

This time Lux can't hide the skepticism in his voice. "You think they want a house?"

The pieces start to snap together in my mind. It makes sense. Young, single men with unstable lifestyles are more likely to move without giving proper notice than anyone else. That's why Bonnie and Clyde use a ruse instead of forcing the door – they don't want to damage the house. It's a perfect scheme: make it look like the tenant skipped town and take over his home.

"All the victims were unstable except for Saw," I remind him. "They let him live because they realized he had a family and would be missed."

"And after every attack, something goes wrong or they find something they don't like and move on." Lux confirms. "They're working up to better houses; Saw doesn't live in a dump like Rassk's place."

"They'll never find a perfect home, so they're never going to stop killing. And the closer they get to whatever deadline they're working toward, the more people are going to die."

The poor guy across the aisle decides to speak up, apparently having heard everything. _"Deadline?_ These loony bin killers you're chasing are terrorizing the planet because they're trying to meet a due date?"

Lux's eyes widen.

"Uh-oh, I know that look." I worry. "That's the look of 'I suddenly have a plan'."

"I don't have a plan," Lux admits. "I have the answer."

"The answer?"

"I think Bonnie had another reason to wear that baggy shirt. Can I borrow your comlink?"

"You can't use a comlink on a transport, Lux."

He swears under his breath. "Of course. When we land, I need her to pull all OB-GYN records for Twi'lek/human couples in the last nine months.

"Lux, OB-GYN? That's for -."

"I know," Lux interrupts. "I think Bonnie might be pregnant."

…

For the rest of the flight it's just me, Lux, the kid who's kicking the back of his seat, and our seatmate who watches far too many crime procedurals.

Once we're off the flight, it's a completely different story. Lux grabs the comlink and calls for Barriss to pull the OB-GYN records while I convince our seatmate and any other concerned onlookers that no, there's absolutely _nothing_ to worry about.

…

Barriss buzzes in on the comm. _"I've pulled the medical records for human/Twi'lek couples in the last nine months, and there are many of them. Do you have any more criteria I can use to narrow the search?"_

"We know the mother is human," I say.

A pause. _"That helps,"_ Barriss says. _"Only a quarter of the pregnancies are being carried by a human, but there are still a lot of names."_

"Their names. Do you think it could be short for something?" Lux clears his throat. "Barriss, are any of the mothers named Mary?"

"Where did that come from?" I ask.

"Mar, Mary." Lux shrugs. "It's not too big a stretch."

 _"There isn't a mother named Mary in the system."_

"According to Saw her boyfriend calls her 'Mar.' Try Marley, Amara, Margaery…"

 _"None of those match,"_ Barriss says. _"But there is a Maria."_

I feel a thrill of hope. "What do we know about her?

 _"Maria Reyes, age nineteen, is the daughter of a human mechanic originally from Saleucami. After her mother's death her father remarried a Twi'lek and they moved to Ryloth. The family business isn't the best, but that's what happens when you're a human on Ryloth who's known to use stolen parts, which Maria might be procuring considering her criminal record. Her father hires locals to work in the shop."_

"Has Maria reported to work since the murders started?" Lux asks.

There's a pause as Barriss presumably pulls the records. _"She has not, but that's nothing new. Maria doesn't work with the mechanics, she dates them. From the number of men fired recently, her father doesn't approve."_

"Did any of the former employees happen to be named 'Jack?'"

 _"Checking records…yes. Jack Vierson, age 21, is a Twi'lek who was fired from the garage a month before the murders started, for unprofessionalism. He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon when he was sixteen and tried to beat a man with a lead pipe, but he was released on his eighteenth birthday and got the job at the garage shortly thereafter. He was evicted from his apartment one week before the murders started and before you ask, yes. He is the father of Maria's baby."_

Lux's jaw drops. "It's them!"

"Barriss, could either of them reasonably afford rent for your average apartment?"

 _"No, they're both underwater financially. The garage doesn't pay much, and – oh. The first victim, wasn't his name Rassk? It looks like he was hired at the garage around the same time Jack was."_

With that goes our last doubt that Bonnie and Clyde are, in fact, Jack and Maria.

"Barriss, when is the baby due?"

 _"In two months."_

There's our deadline. "Do they have credit cards, savings accounts, anything we could use to track them financially?"

 _"They haven't used them much after leaving Ryloth; I'm assuming they're using whatever stolen cash they have from the victims. The only recent purchases have been transport tickets from the Onderon spaceport to Coruscant. If anything else comes up, you two will be the first to know,"_ she says and ends the communication.

I take my comlink from Lux's hands.

"We need to send Jack's and Maria's pictures to Onderon. If Saw can make an ID, then we have enough to arrest."

 **DEX'S DINER**

"Two, please."

Dex looks up from his work to behold the couple standing in the foyer of his restaurant: a blue Twi'lek with his arm slung around a slight, visibly pregnant human woman.

"How are you doing today?" he asks, gesturing to an open booth and for the couple to sit down.

"We're doing well. Yourself?" Maria asks as they seat themselves and pick up their menus.

"I'm doing great!" He leans on the counter. "My waitress will be over in a minute to take care of you but until she does, how about a hot chocolate for the mother-to-be, on the house?"

Maria smiles. "Thank you."

Dex sends the hot chocolate over with the waitress droid, who takes the couple's orders. Once she's gone, Jack leans across the table.

"What do you think?"

"Not the Besalisk," Maria decides, sipping her drink. "A nice guy like that who gives a free drink to a pregnant customer – it would be worse than that apothecary. Everyone here seems to love him."

Jack nods agreement. "The patrons would definitely be more promising."

Maria looks around. You would think it would be easier to find loners in Galactic City.

"When we pick the next one," she whispers, "I want you to let me do it."

Jack chews his lip. "You're pregnant."

"Pregnant and furious," she agrees. "But if you were so opposed to it, why did you let me hold the gun?"

The gun: an old, worn-out slugthrower he'd handed to her before they entered. She'd discovered its beauty in the policeman's house before Jack shakily finished the job.

"It's exciting," she says. "When I use it, it makes me feel alive."

Jack's eyes widen. For as long as he can remember all he's wanted is for someone to understand. To understand the feeling that _you do this or you die, and I don't want to die._

And, like a blessing from the gods, Mar doesn't just understand – she feels more than he does.

 _Man, can I pick them or what?_

Maria fingers the slugthrower holstered at his side. "I could tell without looking that this isn't some toy. It has some killing attached to it," she purrs. "I want to do it justice. And you know what they say about the family that slays together.

"We're staying together," she smiles. "The slaying part is just a plus."

 **At least our heroes have a good lead on Jack and Maria, but finding two people in Galactic City is no laughing matter.**

 **Thank you to RoseRavenclaw, Johnt12345, TessaFred, and Starwarshobbitfics for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	8. Where Has't Thou Been, Sister?

**CHAPTER EIGHT – WHERE HAS'T THOU BEEN, SISTER?**

 **LUX**

"Saw, do any of these holos look familiar?"

Saw's still carefully propped up in bed, but it only takes a few seconds of his scrolling through the photos to decide.

" _These two,"_ he says, selecting Jack's and Maria's holos. " _These are the two that broke into my house and attacked me."_

General Tandin gently pats his shoulder. _"You did well, Saw. Now go back to resting."_

 _"I can't sleep,"_ Saw protests.

Tandin breaks in. _"Do you have any leads on the music box? I'm sure that will help him sleep."_

"Not yet, but we know who they are now," I lift my hand over the button to end the call. "Thank you, Saw. It really helps."

Saw opens his mouth to say something but Tandin cuts him off. _"Thank you, Lux and Ahsoka. Check back in as soon as you have any more information, please,"_ he says and ends the transmission just before Saw can shout over him.

Ahsoka raises an eye marking at me. "Is Tandin staying with him in the hospital this whole time?"

"They're probably transferred him to the palace so someone could be with him. I imagine they haven't succeeded in getting ahold of Hutch, and you and I are in no position."

"That's good. I was worried about him being all alone." She chews the end of her stylus. "Okay, the militia and the Ryloth authorities will send us whatever evidence links back to Jack and Maria and we have a positive identification. Now all we need is the trap."

"The media is quiet so we won't scare them off, but this is Coruscant. There are bachelors everywhere, and no landlord will think twice as long as the rent payments keep coming in. As long as they keep hold of the victim's checkbook, they can keep writing checks until the money's gone. That'll give them a standard month to get new rent money, and so on." In my opinion it's really a brilliant trick. I just wish they weren't killing people as part of it.

I sit down on one of the chairs just as Ahsoka gets out of hers. "We know they're expecting, so maybe we can use that to our advantage, somehow. Or we could fake a group of vulnerable bachelors to draw them in."

My stomach growls. Loudly.

"Ahsoka? Before we spring the trap, I'd like to announce that the last time I ate was the breakfast I had at my house. Yesterday."

"Didn't you eat on the transport?"

As evidenced by my clenching and growling stomach, the answer is an enormous _no._ "I was sleeping to make up for the time difference, and when I wasn't asleep I was trying to ignore the kicks to my seat so I could sleep."

Ahsoka shrugs; I've no doubt she's familiar with that particular strategy and the annoyance of having one's seat kicked. "After we spring the trap we can go to Dex's to wait it out…"

"And considering our luck they'll walk into it before we've even placed drink orders. Ahsoka, the last time I ate was also the last time you had anything. We need to eat something before one of us gets the shakes or passes out from hypoglycemia."

My mother was very big on the "eat before you get the shakes" philosophy. Five years old and not hungry? "Eat before you get the shakes!" Ten years old and didn't want lunch? "You have to eat it or you'll get the shakes." Twelve years old and stuffing sweets into my mouth? "Lux, eat some protein so you don't have a sugar crash and get the shakes."

Mina Bonteri succeeded in at least one parenting goal: I eat healthy food on what she would consider an acceptable schedule. Most of the time. And I don't get the shakes.

"Let's order takeout," I suggest. "That way, we don't have to stop working and we can eat. Best of both worlds."

Ahsoka considers.

"Not Nubian," she says after a pause. "Anakin eats way too much Nubian takeout."

…

"I think that's our dinner!" I cheer, jumping to my feet and racing to the door.

Ahsoka rolls her eyes. "Lux, there's something called 'self-control' I'd like to talk to you about."

I could care less about self-control, because I'm famished. I open the door as fast as I can, stuff some credits into the delivery person's hand, and grab the bags with a shouted "Thank you!"

"You and food," Ahsoka scoffs.

I set the boxes onto the table, completely ignoring the last comment. "I can't believe you don't notice how good this smells. I was salivating before I even opened the door."

She goes back to her datapad while I pop open the nearest box. The scent hits my nose like a wave of glorious perfume. Oh, do I love Chandrilan.

"I had the spicy bantha bites. What did you have?"

"The same thing," Ahsoka says. "Just put it in the fridge, please. I really need to get this work done."

I put my hands on my hips. "Ahsoka, come off it. You need to eat something or else…" I can't repeat my mother's famous argument, so I come up with the next best threat. "I'll call Padme. She wouldn't be pleased to hear about this."

"You wouldn't dare," she replies, knowing full well it's the truth. I wouldn't dare.

So I move on to a threat I'd actually follow through on. "I'll feed you like a baby."

Ahsoka actually scoffs at this. "Ha! You, spoon-feed me?"

 _Oh, it's on._

I spear one of the bantha bites with my fork and hold it out. "Open up, Master Jedi."

Ahsoka's head snaps up. "You're not serious."

"I'm completely serious." I hold the fork immovable in the air. "Eat, m'lady."

She bursts out laughing. "What are you going to do, stuff it in my mouth?"

"You underestimate my power; I volunteered at a daycare," I shoot back. "I have fought against the will of toddlers and _won._ Do you want to see the full extent of my power?"

She sighs and drops the datapad. "If it can overcome toddlers, I wouldn't be surprised if Sith Lords ran in fear," she replies before delicately taking the piece of food off the end of my fork. Her eyes close. "Oh my force. This is amazing."

I can't take it anymore; I spear another bantha bite and pop it in my mouth. It tastes how an angel descending from the heavens and handing you a million credits must feel.

"We got side dishes too. They smell great, and I wonder how they taste … Ahsoka?"

Ahsoka has both containers of cheese noodles and holds her fork out at me, grinning devilishly.

"You think you're the feeding expert because you volunteered at a daycare. Think again. I worked in the crèche." she boasts. "They never wanted to eat unless it was candy, and then the caretakers would go bananas if they had too much. It seems like there's a thousand different ailments for little kids."

"There are." I remember having to get an armload of vaccinations as a child. "My mother was always worried about me getting one of them. If I had the sniffles, she busted out the vitamins."

"The way they talk about them, the caretakers in the crèche would have you think you'd never make it to adulthood without vitamins." Ahsoka laughs. "It was almost funny."

"Must be across the board," I joke. "Caretakers and daycare workers and teachers and mothers, always worried about…" It hits me. "Germs."

Ahsoka looks up. "I know that look. What are you thinking?"

"Germs," I repeat. "I can't believe we didn't see it. We don't have to stage some elaborate trap, we don't have to cause a manhunt, we don't have to do much of anything!"

"Lux, slow down," she orders and nearly knocks over our food cartons standing up. "What are you getting at here?"

"I think I know how to catch our killers."

 **THIRD PERSON**

Maria flies into their new apartment clutching a piece of flimsi in her hand.

"Jack, did you see this?"

"See what?" He leans on the mop. "I thought you were going to stay out for the rest of the day; there are too many chemicals here."

"Forget the chemicals," she bleats. "This is a health advisory, Jack. A health advisory for human women who conceived on Ryloth within the last year. There was some kind of toxin in the water that can cause birth defects. I have to get a scan."

"A scan?"

"Yes, a scan. They need to check him to make sure he's healthy." Maria repeats.

Jack shakes his head. "Are you nuts? You can't go to the doctor! How are we going to pay for it?"

"Not a doctor," she scoffs. "The public health department will do them for free. And then if something's wrong I'll go to the hospital and get it done. If I don't have any money they can waive the fees."

"I'm not sure about this," he worries. "It's probably nothing. You've been careful this whole time, and considering how much we moved around that's saying something. You and the baby are going to be fine."

"How do you know that? I still had to drink water."

"And you're going to be fine." Jack gestures to the kitchen floor. "I still have a lot of work to get done here and if you're worried about birth defects you shouldn't be inhaling bleach and ammonia and God-knows-what else is in these cleaning cabinets. Go find a park or something for the next few hours and bring something back for dinner, will you? It's too hot to run the oven."

Maria pauses and then looks at the floor, the white tile still smeared with the evidence of how they got this apartment. She doesn't want to scrub that from the grout and she definitely doesn't want to be around the chemicals. Leave those tasks up to Jack."

"Fine," she says. "I'll go waste five hours somewhere or other. Maybe there's a playground I can check out."

She leaves the apartment and walks down the street toward the nearest health department, passing the health bulletins as she goes by.

The woman behind the front desk remembers where she's seen the blonde human as she takes her information. When the girl sits down to wait her turn for her appointment the receptionist checks the holo the department sent to the staff about a police sting operation.

Yup. That's her, all right. Looks like the outstanding warrant which allows her to circumvent the privacy laws is about to be fulfilled.

She goes into a back room and calls the number on the wanted holo.

…

"Ahsoka, we just got a bite!" Lux shouts, jarring Ahsoka from her half-asleep state on his couch. "Maria just checked into a health department in Coco Town."

Ahsoka jumps to her feet, wide awake. "Are you sure?"

"The staff swears it's her. She must take a good wanted holo."

The jokes slides off of Ahsoka. "Coco Town is industrial and it fits their criteria. Not exactly the best place to raise a family, but it's cheap enough and a great place if you're a couple of killers. Is Jack with her?"

"They say she's all alone." Lux yanks his shoes on and crams the last of his bantha bites into his mouth. "Now I don't know about you, but I have a lot of questions for her. Let's pick her up."

…

"This is the waiting room?" Ahsoka asks.

The security officer nods. "When you come in she's sitting on your left, by the holozine cart."

"Thank you," Lux says as he and Ahsoka enter.

"Maria Reyes?"

The blonde woman looks up from her holozine. "Yes? I -."

She freezes when she sees Lux and Ahsoka, clearly not who she was expecting.

"I already explained my situation to the receptionist," she says sweetly and goes back to her holozine. "I'm here because of that health bulletin for human women who conceived on Ryloth. Something about birth defects."

"The only problem your baby has a chance of inheriting is webbed toes," Lux says. "And that's easily corrected at birth."

Ahsoka comes forward. "Maria Reyes, you're under arrest for theft, breaking and entering, the murders of Rassk, your town's apothecary, Vern Kassel, and the attempted murder of Saw Gerrera."

 _"What?_ I'm here for an ultrasound and you're arresting me for _murder?_ This is a mistake. I can't even see my own feet; how am I supposed to commit murder?"

"With a slugthrower," Lux says, shaking with rage. "Or maybe you beat them with that music box you stole."

"I didn't steal a box!"

Ahsoka ignores her and locks the binders around her wrists.

"You have the right to remain silent."

 **And that's one down, one to go!**

 **Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics and Rose Ravenclaw for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	9. I Just Met a Girl Named Maria

**CHAPTER NINE – I JUST MET A GIRL NAMED MARIA**

 **AHSOKA**

"The police droids found no sign of Jack?"

"I don't think he even knew she was here," I admit. "I don't sense a presence that could be his anywhere, and if we send the droids to canvass the area he'll be gone forever."

Lux looks over to Maria in the back of the police speeder. "So she's the only one who knows where he is?"

"As much as I hate to admit it. If we're going to arrest him we'll have to get her to turn on him."

Lux groans. "It's like they're married; they're practically attached at the hip! She'll never betray him."

I reflect on what little I know about married couples, having met so few of them myself. In the end my thoughts circle back to three people: Anakin and Padme, and Mina Bonteri.

All imperfect examples: Mina was a widow and while Anakin and Padme aren't married, they sure fight like a husband and wife. Padme's even said once that Anakin and I are the most precious things in the galaxy to her.

It hits me. "I think there's one thing that could get her to talk to us."

There's only one bond deeper than the one between spouses.

…

"You have the wrong person." Maria insists. "What charges do you have? And where are you guys even keeping me?"

"This is the police station," I say, crossing my arms. "And we do have the right person, Maria. We found stolen goods in your purse, which gets you on possession of stolen property at the very least."

She places her hands on her belly. "Okay, so I got some stuff from a pawn shop. Is that a crime?"

Lux isn't pleased. "You can stop with the innocent act right now. Saw Gerrera identified you as one of the people who attacked him in his apartment and the Onderon Royal Milita is running your personal effects through the evidence databank. Odds are, they're going to get a match."

"You're on the security cameras in the Lessu spaceport using Dinah O'Donnel's boarding pass," I continue. "That's theft and fraud. And even if you didn't actually kill those men, you're still an accessory to murder."

"I just bought some stuff and moved to Coruscant with my boyfriend. Why are you telling me this?"

"We're just letting you know that you can cooperate with us, but if you don't want to then you're good for a lot of crimes. And since we don't have your boyfriend in custody, you're going down for the murders. That's life in prison."

I expect silence. I expect her to ask for a lawyer. I expect her to try and cut a deal.

Instead, Maria gulps.

"Not on Onderon, right? It's easier to try on Onderon."

I swivel in my seat. "Lux, refresh my memory. If the Jedi extradite her to Onderon, exactly what would her trial look like?"

"Well, the militia would have to question her and General Tandin would likely be at the head of it," he says. "She would be detained at headquarters until her trial -."

"That's the building Vern Kassel used to work, right?"

"Right. We would testify at the trial, obviously, and so would Saw."

"Saw Gerrera? Your friend, one of the heroes who helped to free Onderon?"

"Yes Ahsoka, that Saw Gerrera. Once the verdict is decided she'll be transferred to whatever facility the judge remands her, and in two months she'll give birth in the infirmary before going back to serving her sentence."

I feel a twinge of doubt in the force and lightly kick Lux under the table.

"And according to your grasp on Onderonian law, how long are we talking for a sentence?"

"With one count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder? Twenty-five to life."

I open my mouth to ask about parole, but Maria beats me to it.

"The sentence doesn't matter," she says, her hands knit together. "I get parole because of the baby."

"It might have been like that on Ryloth, but on Coruscant and on Onderon with these types of crimes it isn't." I say, keeping my voice sweet and gentle, just like Padme's as she's roping in the other senators. "If you take all the blame for this there's no chance of parole, baby or no baby."

Her anxiety skyrockets in the force.

"We know you have a father, so once the baby is born we'll send him or her back to Ryloth to live with their grandfather."

 _"No!"_

Bingo.

Maria's ghost-white knuckles clench the edge of the table for a second, and then she relaxes her grip.

"No," she repeats, calmer now. "My father threw me out when he found out I was pregnant; you can't give him the baby."

"Then who are we going to give the baby to, Maria?" I ask. "You're going to be in prison for twenty-five years at least. Someone needs to take care of it."

She gets an idea. "I could do house arrest."

"Not for murder," Lux snaps.

I look sadly at my datapads. "There's no way around the sentence if you take all the charges."

 _There's the hook. Take it._

Maria bites.

"I didn't do half the things you're charging me for."

 _You didn't, though I have no doubt you were planning on doing them._ "You're going to take the heat for all of them unless you work with us to help divide them."

She looks down to her belly and I use the stolen second to shoot a glance at Lux. He nods.

"It was your idea only to target men without families, wasn't it?" I ask. "You showed Jack that holo of Saw and his sister so he wouldn't kill him."

"That was his sister?" she shakes her head a little. "I thought she was his girlfriend."

Lux breaks into the conversation. "She was the owner of the music box you and your boyfriend stole. And no, she wasn't his girlfriend." He pauses for a minute, as if debating his next words. "She was mine."

The words send a shock down my spine. What is Lux thinking, bringing his and Steela's relationship into this? And more urgently, why do I want to punch something thinking about it?

"I loved her for a time, and her brother is the best friend I ever had," he continues. "By saving his life you honored their family, and you honored me."

Maria asks the question on my mind. "Why does it matter that I honored you?"

"Because I'm the Senator of Onderon."

The puzzle pieces click in my head. _Lux Bonteri, you smart nerfherder._

"If anyone can get sentences reduced or charges divided, I can. There's not much in my power, but if you work with us I can get your charges reduced to manslaughter. Ten years, a possibility of parole. You'd have a decent shot as long as you were a model prisoner."

I reach into the force as inconspicuously as possible to ride the wave of emotions coming at me. From Lux, anger and triumph. From Maria, a cocktail of fear, grief, anger, and a primal instinct so strong it can only be one thing.

 _The question is whether it's for the baby, or for Jack._

I take a risk. "With parole and the reduced charges you're looking at five years. You would be there for the most of his or her childhood." I decide to follow in Lux's footsteps. "I didn't grow up with my mother. I would always wonder what she was doing, what she looked like, if she missed me." Is it the cheesiest plan of attack in the book? Yes. But I'm going to go for it.

"If you have a chance to be there for your baby, take it." I implore. "You deserve it. Your son or daughter deserves it, and you can help us close out this investigation for the families of the victims."

"They didn't have families," she protests.

"Yes, they did. They were bachelors, but they still had families. That apothecary you killed on Ryloth left behind three sisters, and Vern Kassel's father and stepmother are devastated."

She shakes her head. "No, I checked. That was my job. I checked to make sure they didn't have families – that's why I showed Jack that holo."

"Maria, the thing about bachelors is that most of them aren't decorators. They had families, they just didn't advertise it," Lux says. "I know I never did. You just got lucky that Saw displayed that one holo."

"No," she stands up. "That was the agreement. Families get the police involved, and that was the last thing we needed. We checked!"

I spin my datapad and search the HoloNet for the news segment with Vern Kassel's family.

"This is his father and stepmother."

Maria watches the segment, eyes huge as reality finally, finally sets in.

I shut off the video. "Maria, we need to stop Jack from doing this again."

She puts her cuffed arms on the table and leans on them, a new terrified look on her face.

"Since we're not on Onderon, I'd bet he's somewhere watching this news story," she shudders. "He likes the killing part. I just wanted a house, but he wanted to _kill_ people for it. I didn't understand what he wanted until he pulled his gun on Rassk and – oh my gods!"

I look over my shoulder to the police droid guarding the door. "Can we have some privacy, please?"

The police droid walks out and shuts the door behind it. I wait a solid ten seconds

"Maria, does Jack scare you?" Lux asks. "Does his temper ever flare with no warning, or he'll act cruelly toward you or others?"

"Sometimes," she nods. "When I told him I needed to go get a scan because of the health advisory, he completely lost his mind. He started screaming and waving things around saying we didn't have the money and that I didn't care about anything but the baby." She wipes her nose. "And I do care, about the baby I mean. I didn't want to get pregnant, but now it's all I think about."

"And does he enjoy violent holos or things like hunting a little too much?"

"He can't get enough of them. He took me to the holo theater once and all he wanted to watch was this horrible, gory one."

Lux gives me a look which says everything: Combine a raging temper with a love of violence and gore, sprinkle in attempted murder and assault, and it's a recipe for instant trouble.

"He is dangerous," Lux implores. "And we need to stop him before he hurts someone else. He doesn't have to know it was you who told us; he doesn't even have to know you're here. We can make it so you can serve your time, get out on parole and raise your baby, and you will never have to worry about him again."

"You can't promise that."

Lux leans forward. "I can promise you that we will put him away until the day he dies. But you need to tell us everything so that we can tell the prosecutor you cooperated and they can build a case to put him away."

"And I'm a Jedi," I tell her. "He wouldn't get within fifty feet of you without me knowing about it."

Maria pauses.

"I can't think. Can I have a minute alone please?"

I stand. "The police droid will be here the whole time, and we'll be back in a few minutes."

…

"Do you think it's going to work?" I ask as soon as I'm sure we're out of Maria's earshot.

Lux shrugs. "I'm not sure. We've shaken her trust in Jack and now she's thinking about her son or daughter as well. We've done all we can."

"We should bring her father here. He can act as a character witness and vouch for them. Even if he isn't thrilled about her pregnancy, he has to love her at least a little. And we know he doesn't like Jack one bit."

Lux nods. "Good idea. Can you ask Barriss to alert the authorities on Ryloth to bring him over?"

"Of course." I pull out my comlink and send a quick message to Barriss asking her to do just that. "And what do you really think about reducing the charges? I could tell you were sugarcoating it a little in there."

"I was," he admits. "Manslaughter isn't happening. If I can prove she was under Jack's influence, which shouldn't be very difficult considering what she told us, then I can get her parole on a murder charge easily. As for him -."

"I take it manslaughter isn't happening for him either?"

"No," he shakes his head. "Maria just said it was her job to check the homes for evidence of a family. That not only makes her an accomplice to murder, it proves premeditation. Jack Vierson is going down for first-degree murder."

 **It's a delicate business, getting criminals to turn on one another. The question is whether Maria will go through with it after she thinks.**

 **Thank you to starwarshobbitfics, TessaFred, and Johnt12345 for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	10. Macbeth Does Murther Sleep

**CHAPTER TEN – MACBETH DOES MURTHER SLEEP**

 **LUX**

"We have an apartment in Coco Town," Maria says dully. "Jack should still be home."

"We need the address," I say, passing her a datapad.

She writes down the address and hands the 'pad back to me. "Whatever you do, don't tell him I talked to you."

…

One advantage to Ahsoka's master being paranoid about her safety: when she asks for a strike force to help her take down "a psycho," General Skywalker couldn't give her the men fast enough.

Of course he also decided to tag along, and that's how I end up in the backseat of a speeder clinging to my seat for dear life while Skywalker and Ahsoka argue in the front.

"This my mission," she argues. "All I needed were some men for a strike force, not for you to babysit me."

"I'm not babysitting you; I'm driving you," Skywalker shoots back and makes a wild turn that almost sends me careening across the speeder.

"General Skywalker?" I speak up once I'm sure I won't lose my lunch. "Do people usually drive like this in Galactic City?"

"No Lux, they don't," Ahsoka says before Skywalker can say anything. "If my master here wasn't the Hero With No Fear, then he would get his _license pulled!"_

"I'm a good driver!" Skywalker protests.

"Says the one who just blew a red light!"

He ignores her. "Senator Bonteri, could you repeat that address for me?"

I read the address off the datapad and try not to scream in panic when Skywalker floors it and sends us lurching down the lane. I watch the numbers on the speedometer go from 35 to 60 in five seconds, maximum.

"Master!" Ahsoka shrieks and clutches her seat. "Remember Lux is in the backseat and you promised Padme that you would drive safely with him."

"I remember."

"No, you clearly don't!"

…

I don't ever want to ride in a speeder driven by Anakin Skywalker again, but if I have to storm a place then he and Ahsoka are on the top of my list of people I want on my team.

"Jack Vierson, open up in the name of the Republic!" Ahsoka yells through the door.

There's a scuffle inside and Skywalker Force Pushes the door in, sending it flying off its hinges and into the apartment where it knocks over a bucket with a loud THRACK!

A Twi'lek man freezes, seemingly startled by the door. But Ahsoka isn't fazed in the slightest. She shoves past Anakin and steps into the apartment with her lightsaber in hand.

"Put your hands in the air," she orders and hovers her thumb over the button to activate her lightsaber.

"What is this about?" the guy cries. "Why did you kick down my door? My girlfriend is going to have a baby, and if she sees this I'm toast."

"You're in more trouble than just with your girlfriend," Ahsoka seethes and stomps further into the apartment, her hand now firmly on her set of binder cuffs. "Jack Vierson, you're under arrest for three counts of murder and the attempted murder of Saw Gerrera."

I enter, wary of the destruction in the doorframe and struggling to keep my anger under control. This man shot my best friend, my brother, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't entertaining a few violent fantasies.

"What?" Jack protests as Ahsoka locks the binders around his wrists. "I didn't murder anyone. I'm just trying to clean my new place."

"Cleaning? Do you usually clean with a slugthrower?" Ahsoka snaps and jerks her head toward said gun sitting on the table. "Someone bag that for evidence."

I glance over to the mop and bucket leaning against the wall.

"Whatever's in that bucket is probably enough to gas us all," I wrinkle my nose. "Did you water that stuff down? I'm surprised you don't have chemical burns on your hands."

"My girl likes things clean. Is that a crime?" He blinks. "Look, can I at least dump the bucket down the sink so it doesn't gas us when we come back?"

My instincts poke me and I mosey over to the bucket. "I'll do it for you."

Maybe it's like the outsiders say, and the people of Onderon are all animals at heart complete with animal instincts. Maybe I really do watch too many crime procedurals.

But whatever it is, I hit pay dirt when I look into that bucket.

"Ahsoka, you need to see this."

The chemicals in the bucket have been dyed a bright lime green. Ahsoka cranes her head over my shoulder to see.

Then she turns to Jack.

"So," she says. "Duros?"

…

"Jack, it's over." Ahsoka says. "We have a positive identification from Saw Gerrera as the guy who tried to kill him. The ballistics from your slugthrower match all the previous crime scenes. We found the body of the tenant you just killed in a Dumpster. We have your girlfriend in an interrogation room down the hall, and we found traces of blood literally on your hands."

"Maria sold me out, didn't she?" he asks. When I don't answer he swears in Twi'leki. "That _schutta._ Of course she did. Is she pinning this all on me?"

"What's there for her to pin?" I snort.

"I'm betting you picked up a slugthrower because it isn't detected on weapons scans, which is sound." Ahsoka drums her fingers on the table. "Here's the thing about slugthrowers, though: when you fire them, the powder leaves residue on your hands. Despite those chemicals your hands have come back positive for it, and I can't think of any other way for slugthrower residue to get there besides shooting someone."

"It wasn't my idea."

That catches me off guard.

"You're telling me you didn't want to break into those apartments, pull out your slugthrower, kill the tenants, and move on to the next victim when you realized you weren't getting away with it," I deadpan. "You didn't want to kill four people and injure one?"

"Yeah!"

"Jack, you fled two different planets after you killed those men," Ahsoka says, her face broadcasting that she is completely and utterly unimpressed.

"I wanted to stay on Ryloth and shack up with Rassk."

"That clearly couldn't happen, because you killed him."

Jack's hands shake wildly. "Not at first!"

"So you drank some of his beer before you shot him?" I snap.

Ahsoka shoots me a _Shut up, Lux_ look. Thankfully, Jack doesn't notice.

"No, we lived there for something like a _week!"_ He blurts out. "Rassk wasn't my best friend in the world but he said we could stay with him until we got on our feet as long as we helped pay the rent. The rent part was going to be a little tricky, but I figured he would forget about it or give us some extra time until I had the credits. Maria made him swear not to tell anybody, something about her father, but Rassk is either drinking or hungover so that wasn't a big deal. It's not like he talks about what goes on at his place except to complain about the rent."

Okay, this isn't making an iota of sense. Jack and Maria wanted a house, but it looks like they got what they needed with Rassk. "If it was okay there, then why did you kill him?"

Jack goes deadly silent. Ahsoka leans forward on her elbows. "Jack, this is your last chance to help yourself and say something."

"Maria."

I blink. Ahsoka's head jerks back the smallest bit.

"You killed him for Maria?" I repeat.

Jack nods and casts his eyes down to the table. "The day it happened, Mar met me alone in the kitchen and told me he tried to seduce her," he trails off. "I was so mad. She had to have seen how angry I was but she just kept on going and – I don't even know how I got the gun! I kept it in my suitcase and I don't remember going back to our sleeping area to get it. Next thing I remember Rassk is dead and Maria's telling me that we need to get another place."

"Did she have a place in mind?"

"No, she just said 'nobody's gonna miss Rassk; we'll just find another Rassk.'"

"Wait a minute," Ahsoka sits up straight. "You're telling us that this entire murderous rampage was _Maria's_ idea?"

"Yes!" Jack bleats.

If I was anywhere but directly in front of someone who we've hypothesized to be, by all counts, a psychopath then I would sit back and zone out to the wall in front of me while I processed the information. But in my present situation there's only one thing I can do.

"Ahsoka, I think the lab results for the M-40 tests should be in."

There's no such thing as an M-40 test, and Ahsoka knows it.

…

Maria stares at us with huge, tear-filled eyes.

"He's saying it was my idea?"

"That's what Jack told us." Ahsoka explains, reaching across the table to gently pat Maria's hand.

"He's lying," she sniffs. "Isn't that something that messed-up people do? They lie and hurt the people they love to get their way?"

"Beings with antisocial personality disorder tend to use whatever means necessary to meet their goals," I say, practically plagiarizing a HoloNet article I read on the way here. "Maria, Jack said that you two lived with Rassk for a week before the murder. What made you leave?"

She wipes her nose with her sleeve. "Rassk came on to me. I asked Jack to talk to him, and he lost his mind and grabbed his slugthrower. I tried to stop him, but he was too strong."

"Okay, and after he shot Rassk what happened?"

"He got this look on his face," she shudders. "And then we grabbed our stuff and went to get a new place. He said we would just find someone like Rassk."

…

"They're telling the same story but with the names swapped."

"Yes," Ahsoka says sardonically. "I could tell. Looks like we did our job of driving them apart a little too well."

Tell me about it. I almost wish we hadn't done so well. Then we wouldn't be trying to sort out this massive, confusing mess.

"Who should we believe?" I ask. "They haven't had any contact with each other so there's no way they could coordinate their stories unless it was a prior arrangement."

"They're selling each other out," Ahsoka reminds me with a pointed finger. "I don't think they're coordinating their stories; I think one of them is telling the truth and the other one is lying."

"All right, so which one? You can tell with the Force, can't you?"

She shakes her head. "It's not really something I can turn on or off."

Beautiful. I grasp at my last possible straw. "Can you mind trick them into telling the truth?"

She gives me a withering look and I feel the straw slip through my fingers.

"Mind tricks only work on the weak-minded," she practically seethes. "Do either one of them strike you as weak-minded?"

Nope…

But I don't dare to say it out loud, because it looks for all the world like Ahsoka will strangle me the next time I say something stupid or smart-mouthed. I may not be force-sensitive, but I can guess that Ahsoka wants one thing in particular more than anything else: sweet, sweet sleep.

"Did you sleep on the transport?"

She stops me before I can even suggest it. "Not a chance, Lux. We only have so long we can hold these two without a charge, and if we don't know who did what then we can't charge them with anything. I'm going to call Anakin and Barriss to see if they can help us, you try to get ahold of the milita or of your hacker friend, wherever he is -."

Ahsoka's comlink buzzes. Written across the display in red block letters is the name BARRISS.

"Thank goodness," Ahsoka grabs the comm and puts in on speaker. "Barriss, please tell me you have good news."

 _"'Good' may not describe it well,"_ Barriss says. _"I did dispatch Mr. Reyes; he is on an express transport to Coruscant and a police escort will take him directly to the station. That's not what I'm contacting you over, though."_

She pauses.

 _"I found some information which is rather … disturbing."_

 **Lux and Ahsoka need to find some answers, and fast. The two of them placing the blame on each other creates reasonable doubt, which could hinder them in delivering any charges.  
**

 **Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics for your review. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	11. Out, Damned Spot!

**CHAPTER ELEVEN – OUT, DAMNED SPOT!**

 **AHSOKA**

Disturbing.

Before this mission began I would have balked at something Barriss found "disturbing," or at least taken a step back before diving headlong into it. But between now and then I've interviewed an upset and doped-up Saw Gerrera, dumpster-dove through Vern Kassel's trash, dealt with angry spaceport passengers, faked a public health emergency, and observed a mop and bucket that would make Cad Bane flee in fright.

To end this mission I'll take any information I can get. I don't care how much brain bleach I'll need when it's over.

"Give us the inside scoop, Barriss."

 _"If you insist,"_ Barriss says in a tone that suggests she needs to spend some time looking at cute tooka videos. _"While I was looking for Mr. Reyes' contact information I stumbled on some strange purchases made with the garage's account. Ahsoka, is there a chance Maria was trying to become pregnant?"_

Trying to get pregnant? Considering how much trouble it's caused her I don't see a good reason to try! "She said it was unexpected."

 _"Someone used the garage's account to pay for several herbal remedies from a local apothecary. In my professional opinion, those are widely used on Ryloth to increase fertility."_

Lux nods. "Maria might have aimed to catch Jack in the baby trap?"

Sure sounds like it. "If he's unstable she might have wanted to tie him to her permanently."

 _"Excuse me?"_ Barriss pushes back into the conversation. _"The plot thickens from there. The apothecary who sold Maria the tinctures was none other than -."_

"The same apothecary they killed later?"

 _"Ahsoka, I'm beginning to wonder why you failed your last deductive reasoning assessment since you're clearly so good at it."_

"It's all in the studying, Barriss. You love it. I love it less."

 _"For Senator Bonteri's benefit, I'll inform him that's a light way of putting your study habits,"_ she says with the shadow of a laugh.

Lux smiles a little, but a second later he's all business. "That can't be a coincidence. Do you think Maria might have been trying to hide the evidence?"

 _"Medical personnel can't divulge patient information under any circumstances."_

"She might not have known that," Lux defends his theory. "But if she did, then that's premeditated murder."

 _"It might be more than that,"_ Barriss says, her voice flatter than Abafar's wastelands. _"I know you two predicted that Jack and Maria began this killing spree because they didn't have anywhere to go -."_

"That's correct."

Barriss continues, clearly ruffled at being interrupted. _"The evidence tells a different story. It looks like Mr. Reyes was wrongly made into a villain."_

I raise an eye marking. "How is he not a villain? He threw out his pregnant daughter."

 _"No, he didn't,"_ she says. _"He's actually terrified for her and was extremely relieved when I told him you had her in custody; he left for the spaceport while I was speaking with him. And when I looked further into his and Maria's records, I found that he's filed a lawsuit with the Department of Youth and Family Services."_ Lux swallows hard and I can't blame him. He's had a few run-ins with DYFS after his mother's death and I'm not surprised the name of the institution brings on some bad feelings. But since Barriss isn't on hologram, she doesn't see. _"Mr. Reyes sued for custody of his grandchild."_

"That doesn't make any sense," Lux blurts out. "If Maria was fine living with her father before, and he was willing to give her baby a home, then why go on this mission in the first place?"

 _"It seems some clarification is in order. Mr. Reyes sued for_ sole _custody of his grandchild."_

Sole custody with Maria in the house? Kick me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't make a grain of sand's worth of sense. "On what grounds?"

 _"According to his lawsuit, she is unfit to be a parent."_

Lux shakes his head. "He must be grasping at straws; she may be an ex-con but there's nothing in there to indicate she'd be a bad mother."

 _"Something convinced the village court that she was. The verdict reads, and I quote, 'While it is admirable that the off-worlder mother wishes to raise the child as a single parent and on the planet of its heritage, the court has determined her incapable of being a fit parent, and remanded custody of the unborn child to her father upon its birth.'"_

Well there's a reason to skip town. Maria had a small petty theft charge and apparently she used the garage accounts to fund some of her other habits, but that doesn't suggest anything like her father's accusing her of. Unless… "Barriss, does she have a juvenile record?"

 _"Yes, but it's sealed and very tightly. I'm attempting to reopen it but it will take time."_

Great. Just great. We only have so long to hold these two without a charge and although Barriss' research skills are admirable, when she says "it will take time" it _will_ take time. Time we don't have with Barriss' expertise alone. I'm awful at anything with research and records, and Lux's abilities are restricted to search engines.

But he knows someone who can help.

"Barriss, focus on the specifics of the lawsuit and Mr. Reyes. Lux, can you -?"

Lux is already on his comlink.

…

"Well, fancy hearing from you again! Where the heck _were_ you? The militia tried to contact you seven times!"

Hutch says something and Lux rolls his eyes. "What have you missed? Well for starters, Saw's been shot by some serial killers."

A noise which sounds like a _what?_ comes from the comm.

"Get back to Onderon now and give His Highness and poor Tandin a break from watching him. And while you're doing that, I need you to open a sealed juvy file on Ryloth immediately. The girl's name is Maria Reyes."

Lux steps closer and I can start to make out Hutch's babbling on the other side of the comm, though it's not very clear. He's probably speaking in tech-speak or just shooting off his mouth until a shout pierces the monologue.

Lux pulls the comlink back and rubs his ear. "You opened it?"

Hutch's voice is clear as a bell. _"Yeah, and I need brain bleach!"_

…

"If Hutch says he needs brain bleach then I'm not sure I want to see those records," Lux admits.

I'm not sure I do either, but I open the file anyway to find – to my immense relief – nothing but text files. "No images, Lux. And it doesn't look like she actually committed any of these crimes. She's only listed on here as a witness.

"Oh, thank the force." He opens the files. "These don't seem too terrible for Ryloth during the Clone War. It just looks like she was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"The wrongest place at the wrongest time," I correct. "Assault with a deadly weapon, manslaughter, assault – these aren't even from the Separatist occupation. They're dated before the droid army arrived. I'll admit Ryloth is in the Outer Rim, but most people are just trying to live their lives. Anakin lived on Tatooine in -," I catch myself before I spill Anakin's secret. "Not the best situation, and he wasn't involved in this much stuff."

"She either has the worst luck in the universe, or it isn't luck at all," Lux reads through the files. "All the crimes she's witnessed have been violent; how do you stumble on that from petty thievery?"

"Trust me Lux, if you're the kind who's attracted to trouble, then finding violence would be easier than finding a kid who likes to play. Remember Jack's criminal record?"

He nods. "Right. If these perpetrators are her ex-boyfriends, then she probably just rode along. One of Jack's pops up, so it's not out of the question."

"Do you think he could force her into this?"

I may as well have asked Lux if humans need oxygen for survival. "Let's put it this way. Jack's assault with a deadly weapon charge was _this_ close to becoming homicide." He lifts his hand in a pinching gesture with a modicum of space between his thumb and forefinger. "My father told horror stories about when my mother was pregnant with me. Endless crying, panicking that I was going to die because she pet a tooka that day. If the HoloNet said it, then it was absolute truth in her eyes."

 _This is the same Mina Bonteri who took me a down a peg with so much a sentence? I don't believe it._ "That sounds … tumultuous."

"Even if we all would have liked for me to have a brother or sister, I think it would be a lie to say that Dad wasn't relieved he wouldn't have to go through it again." He shakes his head.

His may be shaking, but mine's just lit up like a thousand suns. "Your mom scared him a little, didn't he?"

"Ahsoka, I hold the firm belief that my mother could scare Sith Lords. My father didn't stand a chance."

"If she were to get angry enough, think a pregnant woman could get her boyfriend to commit murder?"

"I would say that if there was anything in Maria's records to indicate she could actually pull this off. Thieves usually don't escalate to murder."

"You say usually."

"How did Maria's mother die?"

The sudden change of subject catches me off guard, but I mask it and re-check the records Barriss (Dear force, she deserves sainthood) sent to my datapad. "Speeder crash. Why?"

Lux hesitates, and the silence speaks volumes. "Senators don't usually try to join terrorist groups either, but you did. And it was all because Count Dooku killed your mother."

I don't remember my mother. When I visualize that word, the only image that pops into my mind is Padme's. While she's not actually my mom, I know that when I feared for her life, her safety second only to a wish to get rid of whoever dared endanger her. In that case, it was Aurra Sing.

I'm actually a little scared of what I would've done had Aurra Sing killed my Padme. I wouldn't have joined Death Watch, but I might have done something else equally stupid.

Lux cranes his neck over to read the accident report on my datapad. "I can't read upside down, Ahsoka. Was Maria in the speeder with her mom that day?"

When I look at the holo of the scene, I get the feeling that if Maria had been in the speeder she wouldn't be here today. "No. According to the reports she had just dropped Maria off at school when another speeder ran a red light and hit her broadside when she was trying to pull out of the speeder pool. She was killed instantly."

"If she was just leaving the speeder pool, then Maria could witnessed it. Taking the date on the accident, subtracting it from today' date…" He does the mental math. "If Maria is nineteen years old now, then she was eight."

 _Incident: Speeder Crash. Number of Fatalities: 1_

 _Witnesses: Maria Reyes, age 8, decedent's daughter_

 _Instantaneous death from blunt-force trauma_

 _Child is very calm throughout ordeal._

I shut off my datapad. "You're right Lux. The first responders report that Maria approached the wreckage and got a really good look at her mother. It also states that she was extremely calm during the whole process."

He sits up, but he doesn't need to say anything to tell me it's not normal – I know it's not normal. Anakin did something he regrets after his mother died, though he's a bit fuzzy on the details. My men and I have had to hold back civilians who want to deal death to people who killed their parents. Lux would have dealt Count Dooku a long and painful death if he had half the chance; I'm willing to bet all the credits in the galaxy he didn't just stand calmly when he learned of his mother's death.

"Indifference to death, incredible charisma, a long record of witnessing violence and run-ins with the law prior to age 15." Lux stands up. "I'm not a psychologist, but I think we need to bring one in here. These are symptoms of -."

"Antisocial personality disorder. Looks like it's time to call Barriss again; we're going to need psych evals on both of -."

A police droid opens the door, cutting off my sentence.

"Padawan Tano, Senator Bonteri, there's a Balon Reyes here to see you."

A haggard-looking man shuffles into the room. I would guess his age as fifties or so, and his face and hands are weathered from years of manual labor. He's bald, but his light eyebrows match Maria's perfectly.

"Mr. Reyes, my name is Ahsoka Tano and this is Senator Lux Bonteri." I extend my hand for him to shake. "We're investigating a murder spree and we believe your daughter is involved."

Rule number one of talking to family members: always says "we _believe."_ It makes them more willing to cooperate with you than if you say straight-out that you know their relative is a cat burglar or a stone-cold killer.

But Mr. Reyes just shakes his head. "I knew something was wrong when they disappeared. When that boy is involved, my daughter is a disturbing girl."

 **And now we have some clarity on the state of one of our killers, but not the other. The answer will come next chapter, along with Part Two.**

 **Rogue One comes out tomorrow night! I'm so excited!**

 **Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics, TessaFred, and McAwsome for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	12. How Now, Hecate?

**CHAPTER TWELVE – HOW NOW, HECATE?**

 **LUX**

Ahsoka's hostess skills would put Onderonian noble ladies to shame. No sooner has Balon Reyes made introductions then she whisks him into a waiting room, offers him a seat, and pours him a cup of very, _very_ strong-smelling caf.

"Thank you for coming in, Mr. Reyes," I say in a poor attempt to match her courtesies. "We appreciate your help with the investigation."

"Are Maria and the baby alright?" He asks and wraps his hands around the cup of caf.

"We're not doctors, but everything appears to be fine. We'll arrange for her to have a checkup once we're done here."

"Thank goodness," he sighs. "When she disappeared I was terrified about it."

"Why'd you sue for custody?" Ahsoka asks casually.

Mr. Reyes seems to choose his words carefully. "Maria is many things. A good mother wouldn't be one of them."

"And why is that?"

"She's cold," he says after a long pause. "Taking care of a baby is hard work. I didn't think Maria would be capable of giving a child the constant attention it would need, and I didn't want to endanger it."

"You believed she could endanger the child?"

"She becomes frustrated easily, yes."

Lots of people have a quick temper, but if her father was willing to sue for custody then Maria's fuse must have been about two inches long. "Mr. Reyes," I say as delicately as I can. "When Maria was growing up did she do anything that disturbed you?"

"Disturbed me?"

"Anything at all that didn't seem normal. Something that rubbed you the wrong way, maybe when her mother died?"

Mr. Reyes' eyes grow huge and Ahsoka points to the caf she's placed in his hands. "Drink that. Don't think, just take a deep breath and drink your caf."

He does, and I realize why Ahsoka brewed the caf as strong as she did. The taste seems to shock him back to reality.

"Are you all right?" I venture.

Mr. Reyes nods. "Yes, I am now."

I decide to repeat the question. "When Maria was young, did she do anything that disturbed you?"

"H-her mother's funeral," he says, all in a rush. "She didn't cry. I took her to one of those head doctors, and she said it was just one of the five stages of grief – but Maria didn't go through the other four. She just carried on with her life."

"Do you remember the name of the psychiatrist?" Ahsoka asks.

Mr. Reyes gives it and Ahsoka steps out, presumably to call Barriss.

I resist the urge to chew my lip, and instead dive into the question I know nobody wants to ask.

"I know this is hard for you," I begin. "But do you believe that Maria is capable of hurting the baby or anyone else?"

He gulps his caf again, probably just trying to keep himself together.

"She wouldn't do it personally," he says. "But if someone did it for her, she would have no regrets about it."

…

"So, I have a theory."

Ahsoka holds up her hand in a _stop_ gesture. "The psychologist just confirmed it. Maria is an ideal candidate for antisocial personality disorder. Jack, while he's no saint, isn't even close. And she's the only one who has motive. I have more than a theory."

And with that, she holds up a datapad with a warrant.

"I love you, Ahsoka."

Ahsoka blinks.

 _Force bless it Lux, why can't you open your mouth without mangling your words?_ "I mean, I love your awesomeness that's given you're a warrant."

She looks hurt. "You mean you don't love me?"

 _Me and my stupid, stupid mouth!_ "Yes!" I press my lips together to ensure no more stupid comments escape. "I mean no. I love you, sort of, as a friend but actually - oh this is coming out all wrong and there's no reason for it to come out wrong."

Ahsoka's hurt expression falls off her face, replaced by laughter.

"Lux, you're adorable." She slugs me in the arm, laughing heartily. "We'll finish this later. But first, let's charge these clowns."

…

Maria sits up in her chair and stretches when she sees us come in.

"Why would Jack lie?" she asks, blinking rapidly as if to push tears back into her eyes. "I don't understand. He was always so focused on protecting me."

"Well, it looks like Jack's done protecting you." I snap.

"What?"

With the speed of lighting, Ahsoka unhooks the binders from one of Maria's wrists, pins both behind her back, and locks them in place.

"What are you doing?"

"You might have had Jack under your thumb when you two were still running wild out there, but getting him away from you was all it took to break that spell you cast on him." I read off the warrant. "Maria Reyes, you are under arrest for three counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and multiple counts of petty and grand theft."

"I didn't kill anyone!" she shrieks. "Test that slugthrower all you want; it's just going to show Jack's prints!"

"You manipulated that boy into killing because you wanted to watch," I accuse. "You don't like the killing part, not yet. Are you getting closer to that? Is that why you attacked Vern Kassel instead of just watching Jack shoot him? Or do you just like watching Jack's turmoil after you twisted him into killing those men, just like you watched your father?"

"Leave him out of this! I'm telling you, I'm being set up. Jack is lying – you have to see it. I'm seven months pregnant and so big I can't even see my feet. Do you think a jury is going to believe I talked my older boyfriend into committing bloody murder?"

"It's not that hard. Let's see what we have here," I start ticking the evidence away on my fingers. "First of all, we have your psych evaluation, which suggests you have violent antisocial personality disorder and that Jack is easily manipulated and controlled. We have the custody hearing which decided you would be a danger to your child's welfare by being able to manipulate Jack into hurting it. And we have your father's testimony. So yes, I'd say we have a very good case against you."

The human girl's eyes go huge, and for a second I see straight through them to what she actually is. Not the daughter of a mechanic and a woman who died in a speeder crash. Not Maria Reyes, the scared pregnant girl. I see her as Bonnie, the stone-cold criminal who gets her Clyde to do the dirty work.

She tries to lunge at me, crossing "Infuriate a psycho" off my bucket list. Luckily, Ahsoka is way too strong.

"Not a chance," she says, and grabs Maria by the back of her shirt. "Get a good look at the galaxy when we go past the window, because you're not going to see it again for a very, _very_ long time."

Ahsoka drags her out of the interview room with me on their heels and turns her over to the police droids standing in the lobby.

"Dad," Maria begs. "Dad, make them listen. Please, you know I couldn't do this. Please. _Please!"_

Balon Reyes looks on, his lip quivering before he turns his back on the scene, and his daughter.

…

Silence, not boring paperwork, was never so sweet.

"Well," Ahsoka says as we open one of Jack's and Maria's bags. "That's going on my top ten list of missions I'll be in a rush to forget about."

"No kidding," I unzip the top of a rucksack and dump the contents onto the table. "Psychopaths are never my cup of tea, not even in stories. But the image of a blonde pregnant girl getting Jack to do those things … well, let's just say that's going to haunt me for a while."

"It could be worse," she gives me a half smile and continues sifting through her own pile with a stylus. "We still have Saw to go back to."

"Let's make that reunion a little sweeter, shall we?" I suggest. "From the way Tandin's talking, everyone wants that music box back."

"I would too, if it was my family heirloom," she says. "Why did he give those to you anyway?"

I flex my right hand so I can see the ring on my finger. "Tandin doesn't have any kids, so nobody was going to inherit them. He said he wanted to give them to someone who deserved them. He gave the music box to Steela, the blade to Saw, and the ring to me."

"It's a nice one too." She nods. "He couldn't have picked anyone more deserving of them than you three."

"Right now it looks like a less deserving person has it." I rifle through the pile on the table. "All I'm finding is clothing, slugthrower ammunition, toiletries – force, I hope they didn't fence it."

"Maria's smart; she probably knew if they sold it they would be able to afford rent for years and she wouldn't have any reason to keep up the game. It should still be here somewhere."

"Are you sure this is everything from the apartment?"

"Oh no, there's lots more from the apartment. But Jack claims this is all they brought with them, and he doesn't have any reason not to cooperate."

"With the deal we gave him, he'd be stupid not to." Jack Vierson is going to prison, of course, but only for manslaughter. With a little help from his lawyer, he's looking at five to ten years if he cooperates.

"And he isn't stupid," Ahsoka announces. "Think positive, Lux. With our luck, it's probably wrapped in their socks."

"Whoop-de-do," I grumble and experimentally poke through the sock pile. "Well, it looks like there's nothing but socks here. And foot odor."

"Poor you," She jests. "You just can't catch a break, can you?"

She pokes at a bundle of dark pink flannel with her stylus, and some of the cloth falls away.

"Hello!" she grabs the ends of the flannel, rips them apart, and there it is: a golden box with a swirl of gemstones surrounding a gold circle on the lid.

"That's it!" I cheer, swiping the dirty socks off the table in triumph. "I can't believe we actually found it!"

"Me neither." She sets it squarely in front of her and lifts the lid.

 _Plink plink plink, plink-plink, plink-plink-plink-plink._

A tiny drexl mounted in the box spins slowly as the music begins. I've never heard the box's song before, but in an instant I see why Saw loved it so much. The song is tender and simple, and it almost sounds like my mother's voice singing into my cradle, lulling me to sleep. The effects aren't lost on Ahsoka; her eyes mist over and she relaxes into the sound until the tune plinks to an end.

Ahsoka opens her eyes. "It's beautiful."

"The others always told Steela it was some present, and now I really see why." I reach to take the box. "We'd better pack it safely."

"Hold on. It looks like you two have a matching set."

"What do you mean?"

She grabs my ring hand and holds it next to the music box. "The gems are the same. See?"

I look closer. "Well, that would make sense. They're both from the same set of family heirlooms."

"Is Tandin's family rich?" she taps the gem with her fingernail. "This box is solid gold, and the gems are sapphires and fire rubies. This box alone is worth a fortune, and I'm willing to bet your ring would cost just as much."

Tandin isn't poor by any stretch, but to test her theory I take the box into my hands and estimate the weight. This much solid gold would be a stretch for even me, and Tandin doesn't get a senator's salary.

"How did they afford this?"

"I don't know," she admits. "And here's the other thing: that blade that was missing from Saw's apartment? It's not here and Jack says he doesn't know anything about it."

"If they don't have it, then it's still on Onderon. And we need to find it."

"Looks like another trip is in order." She scoops up the box. "I'll take this to evidence. You take this blanket to Mr. Reyes, he'll probably need it in a few months for his grandkid."

I examine the corner of the blanket. "I don't think this is his. This label is in Onderonian runes."

"Okay, then maybe they bought it. This doesn't look like one of Saw's warm fuzzies."

"It's not." I turn the datapad to show her the holo of little Saw and Steela sleeping in sleeping bags, each wrapped in a fuzzy flannel blanket.

"It's Steela's."

She smiles.

"I think we just found our way in."

 **Those two definitely have their way in now. Imagine Saw's reaction once he finds out Jack and Maria stole a baby blanket!**

 **Speaking of Saw, I got to see Rogue One yesterday and it was absolutely amazing! I would recommend it to the moon and back.**

 **Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics for your review. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	13. We Are Yet But Young in Deed

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN – WE ARE YET BUT YOUNG IN DEED**

 **AHSOKA**

"The music box?" Jack repeats when Lux and I show it to him. "I picked it up because Maria liked it. Figured it was some cheap metal knockoff, considering it was on the guy's coffee table."

"This is solid gold and the stones are real." Lux tells him. "It's worth a fortune. You two never considered selling it?"

"I wouldn't have even picked it up if she didn't like the music." He shifts from foot to foot. "To be honest, I liked it too. It was relaxing to listen to at night."

Lux picks up the holo from the table. "Did you take anything else that had a similar color scheme, or looked old?"

Jack shakes his head. "No, we didn't have space to carry around old stuff; the box was an exception. Why? Is it important?"

"Thank you for your cooperation. You've helped a great deal," I say quickly and turn to exit the room, Lux close on my heels.

"Master Jedi?" Jack calls after us. "What's going to happen to me now?"

My expression softens. "Well you're still in trouble, but Maria was manipulating you. You have a good chance of getting out of prison relatively fast. Maria, on the other hand..."

He looks down at the table. "The public defender told me. Thanks for helping me with the charges."

"It's our job to serve justice, Jack. Take care." I shut the door between is and look to Lux. "Now regarding the music box..."

He reads my mind. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"When's the next flight to Onderon?"

…

"Welcome back to Onderon, Commander Tano," Tandin says when Lux and I walk into one of the palace's back rooms carrying a brown flimsi bag between us. "Congratulations for putting our killers – er, _killer_ – away."

"It was an experience," Lux says, which is absolute truth. "Ahsoka has shore leave for a few days to recover from the case; she'd like to spend it here."

"I don't see why not." Dendup speaks up from the other side of the room where he's playing a game of dejarik with Saw, who looks as if he's trying to recover both from his injury and from boredom. "Commander Tano, you are always welcome on Onderon."

I smile. "Thank you, your Majesty."

But Tandin's attention isn't focused on the king, or Saw, or me. Instead, he's fixated on the bag.

"Did you bring some lunch?" He asks in the galaxy's worst attempt to change the subject.

I roll with it. "No, actually. Saw, we have something I think you might be interested in."

Lux reaches into the bag and removes the music box, making sure everyone gets a good look at it.

Saw's eyes go huge. Dendup nods approval. Tandin relaxes visibly.

"We found it," Lux beams.

Saw reaches out for the music box and we gladly hand it over. He puts it on the dejarik table and lifts its lid, but before the drexl can begin spinning to play the song I speak up.

"Saw, we also found something else you might be interested in." I say and set the bag on the floor to pull out the baby blanket.

The reaction is instantaneous. The instant Saw sees the pink flannel he cranes around in his seat, the music box utterly forgotten.

"Is this yours?" I ask and set it in his outstretched hands.

Saw buries his face in the soft pink cloth and gives a shuddering sob.

"I didn't even realize they took it!" he chokes out.

Usually I can describe what I feel in the force in a word or two. It's _conflicted,_ or _at peace,_ or _clouded._

But the only word that can describe the force signature coming from Saw Gerrera as he sobs into the blanket is _empty._

Lux rushes to his side and wraps an arm around Saw's shoulders. He squeezes up next to him, a position that can't be comfortable considering the size of chair, and doesn't speak, doesn't move, only listens.

I come to Saw's other side and cautiously rub his back in a circle, humming a half-remembered tune from the crèche.

King Dendup says "Oh, Saw…"

The room is silent except for the sound of sobbing and my humming; everyone is focused with laser precision on Saw and the blanket.

A male Bivall pokes his head into the door before stepping back and asking "Is this a bad time?"

"I'm afraid it is, Advisor Cree," Dendup says and looks up to the chronometer on the wall. "I know you take your lunch at high noon, and I'm afraid I'm going to be busy. We'll have to reschedule our lunch meeting."

"Of course, your Highness," Cree says and gives a bow.

And out of the corner of my eye, I see General Tandin pick up the music box while his king is occupied with Advisor Cree.

…

Tandin's sleight of hand is all I need to see before the tactical gears start turning in my head. And by the time the three of us get Saw back to his room, the dejarik game forgotten and the blanket wrapped round his shoulders like a shawl, I have a plan.

Lux is not a fan.

"You want us to do _what?"_ he whispers when we excuse ourselves to retire to our rooms. "Ahsoka, have you been drinking? That's crazy!"

"Jedi don't drink. Do you have a better idea?"

He doesn't answer. "Ahsoka, Tandin is a general. The chances of him not having a security system are probably equal to the changes of me winning the Galactic Lottery two times in a row."

"I can handle a security system." Why would Lux think I can't handle a security system? I do so every day. "I can rig it so he'll never even notice there's been a breach until we're long gone."

"He has an anooba!" Lux blurts out in what's probably a last-ditch effort to dissuade me from breaking into Tandin's house.

I call bull. "Really? What's its name?"

"Sprinkles."

I bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud. Lux tried to join Death Watch, helped to lead a rebellion, and tracked down serial killers and he's afraid of an anooba named _Sprinkles?_

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," I punch him in the shoulder, grab his arm, and pull him toward the exit. "We'll stop at the kitchen and get some treats for the oh-so-dangerous Sprinkles."

Lux's not-convinced state becomes apparent when Tandin's home looms into sight. All the lights are off; it's a safe bet he's asleep at this hour. But the way Lux is acting, you'd think Tandin was standing in the window with a blaster.

I stop. "Lux, if you don't stop shaking then he's going to notice we're in his house."

Lux vocalizes his fears. "Even tiny anoobas can bark and wake their owners, Ahsoka."

"Not if they're eating nerf bacon," I announce and hold up the baggie of nerf bacon I snagged from the palace kitchens.

The anooba bait has the desired effect: Lux relaxes and shuts his mouth long enough for me to drag him the rest of the way up the street and to Tandin's back door.

"I don't know if or where he hides a spare key," he whispers.

"That's okay," I close my eyes and focus on the inner workings of the lock before me. "I don't need a key."

The lock clicks and the door opens. Lux switches on his flashlight.

"I just want to maintain that I think this is a bad idea," he whispers as we tiptoe into Tandin's house. "We don't even know if the music box or the blade is here."

"Tandin's the common denominator between both of their disappearances, Lux. And if they're his family heirlooms, of course they're in his house. You've been here before. Where would he display things?"

"Short of his bedroom, which I'm not entering because I value my life? The living room."

I step aside. "Lead the way."

Lux cautiously steps in front of me and plays his flashlight down the hall. "Right this way."

I follow him down the hallway, making a mental map of the house as I go. The refresher is directly off the hallway, along with another door I assume goes to the bedroom or a closet. We entered through the kitchen, and the living room appears to be on the other side of the house. In short, it's your classic bachelor pad. The only furniture I see is a sofa, a chair, and some kind of irregularly-shaped coffee table.

Lux plays his flashlight beam onto a short cabinet in the corner. Tandin seems to be using it as a holovision stand.

"That's the only place I think he could hide them,"

"That's where we'll start." I approach the cabinet and open the left drawer to rifle through the items. _Envelope, holo, knickknack, stylus, pad of flimsi, cloth pouch, power cord – cloth pouch?_

I experimentally dump out the pouch and almost slice my palm open in the process. A huge, three-pronged stake blade with a golden handle slides out, sort of grazes my hand and lands on the floor with a dull _thunk._

Lux freezes. "Did we just -?"

"It wasn't very loud." Thank the force Tandin has a rug to muffle the sound.

"Ahsoka."

"This has to be the blade," I pick it up with the Force and set it safely in my hand. "Look, it's gold like the other two heirlooms, and there are two jewels in the hilt that match the ones on the ring and the music box. They're all part of the same set, but what kind of set is that?"

"Ahsoka."

Something needles me in the Force, but I ignore both it and Lux. "This is Saw's, right? If Bonnie and Clyde didn't steal it, then why does Tandin have it? If he was concerned about it being stolen, then the evidence locker would be more secure than a private home. If he wanted to hold onto his family heirlooms, then why did he give them away in the first place? It just doesn't make sense."

 _"Ahsoka,"_ Lux repeats, and points.

I follow his point to the dark of Tandin's living room. "What are you pointing at?"

The coffee table growls.

It suddenly occurs to me just what was needling me in the Force.

Once he's out of his curled coffee-table position, Sprinkles the anooba stands as tall as my chest and is probably my equal in weight. Now that he's no longer sleeping I can see his beady eyes honing in on Lux and I, sizing us up.

Let me put it this way: if someone told me Sprinkles was among the anoobas that chased Master Piell and me at the Citadel, I wouldn't bat an eyelash.

Lux blindly reaches for my pocket where I keep the nerf bacon, but I'm way ahead of him. "H-hi, Sprinkles," I squeak, hold out the nerf bacon, and toss it into the air. Sprinkles opens his giant mouth and gulps it down all in one go.

Then he gives me a look like _Thanks for the appetizer, Ahsoka. Got anything else? Hey, you and your friend here look pretty tasty…_

Against my better judgement I defer to Lux. "What do we do?"

"Do you think we can make it to the fridge? Maybe Tandin has a few steaks," he suggests weakly.

The kitchen is on the opposite end of the house, so that plan's shot. If we so much as move, Sprinkles will either tear our throats out or wake up Tandin, who will then tear our throats out.

No, there's only one option. "We have to knock Sprinkles out."

Lux wraps his hands around his Taser. "You distract, and I'll stun. One…two…"

But before he can say "three," a blaster cocks in the doorway.

"One round wasn't enough for you, was it?" The voice of General Tandin growls. "Looks like Sprinkles didn't deter you this time. You've come to rob my house again?"

"Tandin, it's Lux and Ahsoka!" Lux shrieks. "Don't kill us."

I hit the lights with the Force, illuminating the room. Tandin's eyes widen in sudden recognition.

"Sprinkles, _down!"_ he orders and the anooba slinks back.

"Lux and Ahsoka," Tandin seethes, trying and failing to mask his anger. "What – _exactly_ – are you doing in my house in the middle of the night?"

"The real question is what you're doing with Saw's knife." I snap and hold out the blade in question.

"I was keeping it safe," he protests.

"It's safer here with you and Sprinkles than in Saw's house, which is a guarded crime scene?" Lux demands. "It's safer here than in the evidence locker? And what cause do you have for taking the music box?"

"I have my reasons," Tandin shoots back. "And holding onto some valuables for a friend does not a criminal make. Breaking and entering, on the other hand…"

"Actually, it _does."_ I shake Saw's knife around to get his attention. "This was in Saw Gerrera's house after the burglary, and the house is still a crime scene. If you took it, then you're guilty of tampering with a crime scene."

"Ahsoka, this is part of something bigger than the two of you." He takes a step forward. "It's bigger than this investigation, bigger than the Jedi Council can wrap their heads around. You need to trust me, give me the blade, and pretend this never happened."

"If I intended on leaving without answers, we wouldn't be here. You have a choice here. I can report you to the Jedi Council and have you arrested, but I might be convinced not to." I shove the blade into my utility belt.

"You'd better explain, General." Lux orders. "And I don't want some long, convoluted explanation. Tell me, in one word, what's going on here."

Tandin swallows hard, and tells us everything with one word.

"Magic."

 **Lux and Ahsoka should have known that no good would come of trying to burglarize General Tandin's bachelor pad. Pets' names can be deceiving!**

 **Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics, McAwsome,RoseRavenclaw and TessaFred for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until Next time,**

 **LS**


	14. Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me?

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN – IS THIS A DAGGER WHICH I SEE BEFORE ME?**

 **LUX**

I don't put much stock in magic. I know the Jedi don't either, and if the look on Ahsoka's face is any indication she agrees with the Council on this matter.

But from the look on Tandin's face, and because he's the only thing standing between us and Sprinkles the titan anooba, I refrain from saying "Yeah, right."

Instead, I repeat what he said. "Magic?"

"Yes," he says, deadly serious. "I can explain further, but first let me put on some real clothes." With his free hand he gestures to his baggy sleep shorts.

"Right," Ahsoka nods. "You go do that."

…

Tandin emerges from his room fully dressed and holding, of all things, a box of cookies.

Ahsoka raises an eye marking. "We just threatened to expose you for breaking and entering, and you offer us cookies?"

For a split second Tandin's face belies the fact that he has no idea why he's offering cookies, but he covers like any diplomat. "My mother always taught me to offer guests refreshments," He says and pops one into his mouth before sitting down.

Sprinkles ambles over to the chair, lies down, and rests his enormous head on Tandin's lap. Tandin scratches him behind the ears.

"I have a question," I say, breaking the silence. "What possessed you to name that behemoth 'Sprinkles?'"

"I didn't," he says. "Sprinkles is a search anooba who I worked with in the past. The kennel named him when he was just a pup, and it was a fitting name then."

Sprinkles growls either from relaxation or at me. As I don't want to become anooba chow, I desperately hope it's the former.

Ahsoka isn't distracted by the cookies or the two hundred pounds of terror that is Sprinkles. "Whether Sprinkles' name is fitting or not isn't the question here, Tandin. Why did you steal your own family heirlooms?"

Tandin stops petting Sprinkles.

"I suppose there's no other way of putting it," he sighs. "The blade, the music box, and the ring Senator Bonteri is wearing right now don't belong to me. They've never belonged to me."

My eyes drop to the ring on my finger, the one I wear proudly thinking it was a Tandin family heirloom.

"I'd had my doubts about the Separatist occupation of Onderon even before Rash tried to execute Dendup," he continues. "Their methods were brutal, swift, and well, ineffectual _._ Neither Rash nor his benefactors understood the power in subtlety, and for all Rash knew about the nuances of politics he didn't seem to think they applied to him. He believed in an iron fist, preferably a _hot_ iron fist."

"But you digress," I interrupt.

"I am not; I am explaining," Tandin shoots back and continues. "Our planet is a powerful one, and where men like Rash are concerned, there are some powers you just can't let fall into their hands."

"What do you mean?" Ahsoka asks.

"Naddists."

"Lux, Naddists. Define."

"They were a Sith cult led by Freedon Nadd, who controlled Onderon during the Beast Wars," I explain. "The war only ended because of a marriage alliance between Princess Galia and Oron Kira, but after the Mandalorian Wars they're all but dead." _The Naddist reign, however, would be an entirely different story._

"The Naddists used more than fear to keep their hold over Onderon," Tandin continues. "Freedon Nadd taught his followers the dark arts, and by the time the Beast Wars ended they had enchanted a great number of relics."

I remember something from my history classes. "Those relics were destroyed."

"Not all of them."

The words hit me like a ton of bricks and I thoughtlessly rip the ring off my hand while he speaks.

"Some of the relics were preserved and kept in the Royal Palace. They've remained there for years, until I defected." His eyes harden. "I didn't think of them at first, but I passed the throne room on the way out and my eyes fell upon them. I knew Rash wouldn't hesitate to use them if the thought crossed his mind, and if he had – I can't imagine."

I think it's really not that Tandin can't imagine, it's that he doesn't want to. A desperate megalomaniac like Rash having supernatural power on his side…

"He would have crushed the rebellion and likely all of Onderon along with it," Tandin finishes my thoughts. "Rash would destroy the world if he could be king of the ashes."

Ahsoka sits forward in her seat. "So you split up the relics among the leaders of the rebellion to keep them from Rash."

Tandin nods. "I knew their true power and I was careful with them. I gave each rebel the relic with the magic which best matched their personality. That way no one would notice anything suspicious if they accidentally used them."

"This ring," I hold it up with the very tips of my fingers. "You say it's enchanted. What does it do?"

"It is," he says. "That ring, through its enchantment, brings limitless luck to its wearer."

 _Really?_

Ahsoka bursts into laughter once that sinks in. "Wow Lux, no surprises there!"

"It clearly doesn't work. If I had limitless luck, then Sprinkles would have slept through this whole incident."

"Not true," Ahsoka corrects. "I dropped the blade, not you. And from a certain way of thinking, that could be lucky. Now we're getting the answers we came for." She holds up a finger before I can say anything else. "Nothing will convince me you don't have the best luck in the galaxy, and now it all makes sense."

She has a point there. Still, I put the ring in my pocket instead of on my finger.

"What about the blade and the music box?" I demand, trying my best to ignore Ahsoka's smirking face.

"The music box itself isn't enchanted, but its song is. It soothes anyone who hears it; much like Steela herself. I assumed that if she ever used its magic by accident, a bystander would simply chalk it up to her charisma."

"Steela did have that effect on people," Ahsoka admits. "But the music is something entirely different, General Tandin. It's entrancing. Its magic is probably what got Jack and Maria to spare Saw."

"It probably is," Tandin agrees. "The blade, on the other hand, is far from a healing object. Its magic allows the user to cut through time when traveling."

I chew on that for a minute and come up with nothing. Ahsoka says what's on my mind: "What?"

"A story I heard as a child explained it like this. Has anyone ever said anything about 'the fabric of time?'" Tandin asks. We nod. "Alright, now imagine time as being composed of literal fabric, like my shirt. Now if one end of my shirt is where we are _now,_ and the other end is where we want to go, then we would have to travel the whole distance over the shirt. But if we wrinkle the fabric like _this,"_ he brings the ends of the shirt together. "Then our points are practically touching. This is what the blade's magic allows us to do: wrinkle time in order to travel long distances over short periods of time."

"But we can travel through hyperspace now," Ahsoka points out. "Why would we need it?"

"It would be invaluable to those traveling to and from Dxun," Tandin explains. "And you can't use your hyperdrive in atmosphere, Ahsoka. This blade provides instantaneous transportation, anywhere you can think of, _without_ a ship. Do you understand now?"

She nods.

"There's a fourth artifact as well," Tandin explains. "I held onto it instead of giving it away because there were only three rebel leaders and I know Jedi can't keep possessions. It's a piece of blown glass in a golden frame."

"What does it do? Focus the sun into a death ray?" I ask half-sardonically.

"No," he says, irritation written all over his face. "The glass is a decoder. It allowed the Naddists to read the Beast Riders' coded messages, and I assume it would work the same way today. I haven't really tried it."

"Why?"

"Because we shouldn't play with forces we don't understand," Ahsoka interrupts. "If these are really Naddist artifacts, then their magic could be tainted with the Dark Side."

"Exactly. Which is why they can't fall into the wrong hands."

"Why didn't you just tell us from the beginning?" I demand. "Steela, Saw, and I – we would have kept the secret. You didn't have to go lying to all of us!"

"Yes, I did." He takes a second cookie from the box and feeds it to an expectant Sprinkles. "The relics hold incredible power, that's true. But there's also a reason that they weren't destroyed despite their power. These relics are _keys."_

Ahsoka and I lurch forward in their seats.

"What do they open?" she demands.

"Please tell me they don't open the tomb of Freedon Nadd," I say at the same time.

Tandin cracks a smile, and then his smile fades just as quickly. "No, they don't open the tomb of Freedon Nadd. According to legend, there's a second tomb in the catacombs below Iziz which may or may not actually contain a body. The artifacts are necessary to open the tomb and gain access to whatever's inside."

He doesn't need to elaborate on "whatever's inside." If you need magical artifacts to open it, then the tomb has to contain something. Whether it's unprecedented wealth or unprecedented power, it's something people will kill for.

"I don't know what it is," he says. "But I knew that Rash could never have something locked away by four enchanted relics. I stole them, split them up, and prayed that you would all pass them down to your children until their true purpose would never come to light."

"Until Jack and Maria stole the music box."

Tandin runs a hand through his hair. "It happened before they even landed. Last week, someone broke into my house while I was at work but nothing was stolen. I can only guess they were after the artifacts. When Jack and Maria stole the music box I thought they were also responsible for the break-in, so I secured the blade and checked in on you two frequently to make sure you still had the ring."

"Do you know who could be behind this?"

"No. Only King Dendup knew about the artifacts in the first place and I haven't breathed a word to anyone else."

Sprinkles lets out a whine and looks up at Tandin as if to ask him _Hey, got more cookies?_

I grab one from the box and hold it out to him, hoping to get on the anooba's good side. "Here you go, boy."

Sprinkles growls at me.

Ahsoka raises an eye marking. "General, was Sprinkles home during the burglary?"

"…Yes. Yes he was."

"And if our encounter with him was anything like the burglar's, and the burglar wasn't carrying a cooler of bantha steaks…"

My face lights up. "Ahsoka, you're a genius!"

"I know I am," she preens. "General Tandin, finding your burglar should be as easy as calling the local hositals and clinics. If they so much as breathed on your property, I'm willing to bet that Sprinkles took a bite out of them."

"I'm happy to help on that count," Tandin says and picks up his comlink. "Lux, get a tape measure. We'll need to measure Sprinkles' jaw."

…

"Nice Sprinkles," I squeak, holding a cookie in the air.

Ahsoka rolls her eyes. "Stop being a drama king, Lux."

"You're not the one he's eyeing like you're a big juicy bantha steak!"

"No," she says. "I'm not. I'm the one measuring his mouth, not that I should be scared of that. He's just a big sweetheart."

As if on cue, Sprinkles growls at me.

Meanwhile, Tandin is on the comlink.

"Hello, Iziz Municipal Hospital? This is General Tandin from the Royal Milita. I need the names of all your patients who came in to be treated for an anooba bite six days ago. The bite would be -."

"Five standard inches wide," Ahsoka says.

"Five standard inches wide," he says and pauses for a second.

"Yes, that's a very big anooba. Its owner is very concerned about security.

"Really? Just one?

"I'll need his name and address, ma'am. We need to talk to him."

 **And now it's time to gather up the remaining artifacts and to find out who broke into Tandin's house. Before anyone has to deal with blood magic.  
**

 **Anyone who got the _A Wrinkle In Time_ reference gets an internet cookie (::). I love that book. **

**Thank you to TessaFred, McAwsome, and jchrisharvey for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	15. Come, Seeling Night

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN – COME, SEELING NIGHT**

 **AHSOKA**

"Ronan LePage?"

The University of Onderon's dorm walls are very thin, so we can hear each heavy footstep as the dorm's occupant ambles up to the door, pulls the lock, and opens it.

"Yeah?" he says, bleary-eyed.

"Hello Ronan, I'm from the milita and we're following up on your hospital report," Tandin says. "Six days ago, did you check into Iziz Municipal Hospital's emergency room for an anooba bite?"

Ronan rolls up his pants leg, revealing a large bacta patch adhered to his thigh. "Yeah, some mutt took a chunk out of me."

Tandin holds up his comlink to show a holo. "And this is your wound?"

"Yeah."

"Is your roommate home?" Lux asks.

"No, he's at class. Why do you – hey!"

I shove my way into the dorm. Ronan follows me in. "Hey, what's your problem? Get out of my room!"

Tandin and Lux enter and shut the door behind them. Tandin pulls up another holo on his comlink.

"This is your wound, and _this_ is the vet's impression of my anooba's mouth. My anooba, who was home six days ago the night you broke into my house."

Ronan freezes.

"Look man," he says. "I didn't even take any of your stuff!"

"Then why did you break into my house?" Tandin demands, railroading the interrogation. "You didn't take anything, so you clearly didn't want money."

Ronan pauses for a second. "Look. My grades slipped a little this semester and I lost my scholarship. I need the money if I want to stay in school, so I put out an advertisement saying I'll do odd jobs. Your brother contacted me, said you stole some stuff from your grandparents and he wanted me to get it back."

Tandin sighs.

"I don't have a brother," he says.

Ronan's eyes grow huge. "W-wait, what?"

"What were you supposed to retrieve from General Tandin's home?" I demand.

"Um, the guy sent me a few holos." He ducks further into his room and grabs a datapad to access the HoloNet. "It was a golden stake thing, a ring, some kind of box, and a piece of swirled glass in a frame. He said they were a set of family heirlooms."

"They are," Tandin lies, "But they're not his. Did he give you a name or an address where you were to drop off the heirlooms?"

"No. We did the whole thing through the HoloNet. He never gave me a name and when I messaged him about your monster, he paid my medical bill with an anonymous transfer."

"If you didn't give him anything, then why'd he pay you?"

"I threatened to expose him on the HoloNet, for all that was worth without me knowing his name."

 _Wow. That's actually pretty smart._

I hold out my hands. "May I see your datapad?"

"Uh, you don't look like Royal Milita."

"I'm not. Ahsoka Tano," I flash my best imitation of Anakin's cocky grin. "Jedi Padawan."

Ronan practically throws the datapad at me. I catch it with the Force, smile inwardly, and start digging through the files.

Lux cranes his head over my shoulder. "The sentence structure is very formal."

"This isn't an amateur. Someone definitely knows the truth about the arti – heirlooms."

To his credit, or rather out of mortal terror, Ronan doesn't make a peep.

"How were you supposed to deliver the heirlooms?" Lux asks.

"He told me to mail them to a post office box."

Of course he picked the option no one can trace. I'm about to bang my head against the thin dorm walls when Lux speaks up.

"Hold on a minute. This post office box is in the same building as mine!"

"And what building is that?"

"It's right across from the palace. Only the employees use it."

I share a look with the two of them.

"And only one palace employee knows about the _heirlooms."_

Tandin goes absolutely white in the face. I can't quite blame him; if the Jedi Council had gone through two violent transfers of power in the last few years, I would need to sit down if someone told me Yoda was actually a Sith Lord in disguise.

And it's not just Tandin. I remember King Dendup and his grandfatherly ways – not the type of person I would peg for a treasure hunter.

Luckily, Tandin and I aren't alone in the room. Lux pries Ronan's datapad from my hands and gives it back to its owner. "Thank you for your cooperation!" he shouts and tosses a five-credit chip in his general direction before steering both of us out of the dorm.

The second the door closes, his face belies his true emotions.

 _"King Dendup?"_ he hisses. "What the – why would he even want these?"

"Lux, did you miss the part about a secret tomb that holds untold amounts of wealth or power?"

"Why didn't I think of it?" Tandin laments. "I thought I was going to serve a good king this time. I really did."

"He had us all duped," Lux says. "You did whatever you could."

"Both of you, quiet." I order. "Ramsis Dendup is a king with a planet's resources at his disposal. Tandin's plan, however morally questionable, worked. We need to have a backup plan to divide the artifacts again in case this plan goes south."

Lux chews his lip. "I vote that the decoder glass goes to Hutch. He can stay on Rion with his girlfriend; as long as he has HoloNet he can survive."

"I'll give the music box to Ivy, the palace cupbearer," Tandin says. "She's always sunny, and no one will notice if she uses its magic by accident. Hide it in plain sight, if you will."

I clear my throat. "I'll take the ring and give it to Padme. If anyone has extraordinary luck already, she does." _And she can use a boost wherever she can get._ "What about the blade?"

Lux shrugs. "If we're in so much danger that we have to divide the artifacts, then it just might be time to turn it over to the Jedi Order."

"Just give it to me and I'll take care of it," I promise, envisioning a nice place for the dagger in a dusty corner of the Holocron vault.

"Okay, so we have a backup plan. Now we just need to come up with Plan A." Thank goodness for the one lecture Master Kenobi gave me on planning – always come up with Plan B _first,_ then go to the more complicated Plan A.

"The first step, I need to get the glass from my blaster safe at work," Tandin says. "I'm sure Dendup could open it if he wants to, even if he'll need a blowtorch."

"Then let's go get it."

…

Lux speaks up in the turbolift on the way to the palace.

"Tandin, you said this tomb is located somewhere in the catacombs beneath Iziz?"

"Yes." Tandin slides his gaze sideways to Lux. "Why do you want to know?"

"Now that we have a king on the dejarik board this isn't hide-and-seek anymore, it's a race. We need to open the tomb."

Tandin nearly chokes on his tongue. _"Open the tomb?_ Lux, everything we've done so far has been an effort to keep the tomb sealed!"

"It's either we open it, or Dendup opens it. Which one do you like better?" Lux quips.

"Tandin, I've got to side with Lux here. We all know what we're up against, and this time we don't have Steela to help us get a king off the throne. We need to get in here, get the glass-," something occurs to me. "Get _Saw,_ and get to the catacombs as soon as we can."

Lux nods assent at the inclusion of Saw. "Alright: we have all four artifacts and Saw. How are we going to find the tomb in the catacombs?"

"It won't be easy. You know how extensive the catacombs are," Tandin says. "The Naddists were many things but stupid wasn't one of them, so we can safely assume it's nowhere near the tomb of Freedon Nadd. Unfortunately, that doesn't eliminate much."

"There has to be some kind of clue," I implore. "If they meant for this treasure to be found, which they obviously did because they left keys, then they wouldn't leave us to just wander aimlessly around the catacombs."

Lux takes the ring from his pocket and examines it. "It just looks like a normal ring."

A lightbulb goes off. "Put it on and start walking in the catacombs. You'll find the tomb in no time."

"Very funny, Ahsoka," Lux mutters while making no move to put on the ring.

Tandin closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

Lux snickers. "Are we going too fast for you, General?"

"No, I'm just not used to teenagers." He rolls his eyes. "I only imagine it'll get worse once Saw is with us."

I lean into Lux's ear. "Remind me to grab Saw's medication, or we'll have some issues once the current dose wears off."

Lux winces. "Yes, that would be a sound decision. Better grab some snacks for him while we're at it."

"Good idea." When Anakin gets hungry, it's not a pretty scene.

The turbolift opens and Tandin takes the lead with us trailing behind, making a beeline for the general's office. _We couldn't be more obvious if we were doing the "innocent whistle."_

Lux tries to cut the obviousness hanging in the air by chirping: "It's a great day to have a barbecue, isn't it?"

"…Yeah." I fix him with a look that says _cut the small talk._

Lux shuts up.

"I can get the glass out of my blaster safe in a few seconds. If anyone asks, I forgot my house keys," Tandin whispers and taps in the keypad to his wing of offices. "It's almost lunchtime, so nobody should be in the-."

The door opens, revealing a tall Bivall with a surprised expression.

"Oh, hello Advisor Cree," Lux smiles. "How are you doing today?"

"Very well, very well," Cree says and goes back to his desk. "I'm finishing a few tasks. How is your shore leave?"

"We're heading over to General Tandin's for a barbecue just now," Lux lies. "We're going to take Saw with us; he could use a change of scenery."

"He'll be ecstatic," Cree agrees. "Enjoy your barbecue. Oh, and make sure you watch out for Tandin's titan anooba. That behemoth will think you're the main course."

Lux and Tandin freeze.

I suddenly get the feeling that something is very, very wrong and my hands creep toward my lightsabers. At the same time, Lux's goes to his holstered blaster.

Tandin turns around very, very slowly and says:

"You've never seen my anooba."

Cree's perpetually surprised look grows.

"Advisor?" I ask, taking a step toward the desk. "Just a question; do you have a post office box at the office across the street?"

If Cree had lifted a weapon I would have stopped him. If he had run I would have stopped him. But Cree's only move is to stab his finger into something on his side of the desk.

The office doors slam shut and there's a whirring sound.

Something solid whistles through the air and adheres itself to my shoulder.

I manage to hold my eyes open long enough to see Lux and Tandin fall to the ground next to me.

 **This looks like a great place to leave you all hanging...**

 **In the Christmas spirit (and because I'm nothing if not evil) this story will not be updated on Christmas Day. Instead, I will have a Christmas-themed oneshot for your enjoyment and to soothe the suspense.**

 **Thank you to McAwsome, RoseRavenclaw, and TessaFred for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	16. The Seed of Banquo Kings!

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN – THE SEED OF BANQUO KINGS!**

 **LUX**

I wake up with a booted foot buried in my ribs.

"Lux," Tandin whispers. _"Lux!"_

I groan and turn over, my neck very stiff. "I'm up, I'm up…"

Once my eyes are open I glance around the room, trying to get a better handle on the situation. Tandin's sitting up next to me and next to Ahsoka, who's still unconscious and being kicked by Tandin. My hands are tied behind my back, and so are his, which explains why he resorted to kicking Ahsoka and I awake.

"Ahsoka!" I wriggle upright and scoot around so I can see her better. "Ahsoka, wake up."

Ahsoka moans and opens her eyes somewhere around the third or fourth kick. "Oh, that headache's not going away for a while…"

"Keep your voices down. Cree is in the back of the office with the artifacts and our weapons," Tandin whispers. "Ahsoka, can you get them with the force?"

She shakes her head. "Not without him noticing. In the time it would take me to grab one object, he could grab the knife and be long gone with the rest of the relics."

"What if you grab the knife?" I suggest.

"Then he puts the ring on and lunges for it with limitless luck on his side," She explains. "We have to distract him and get him to move away from the relics."

"I can do that," I say and thunder as deeply as I can, "Advisor Cree!"

Cree looks over his shoulder at me. "You're awake."

"Advisor Cree, what is the meaning of this?" I demand.

Cree shakes his head and turns from the artifact. "This is a mistake, on General Tandin's part. You thought that because I was on Rash's advisory council, I would forget about the artifacts and their power.

"Well General, you're not the only one with a memory. Or with ambitions."

"What do you mean by ambitions?" Ahsoka growls.

Cree takes a second to place her. "The king's Head Advisor and the head of the Royal Milita occupy the same rung in the palace's hierarchy: second from the top. When you're second from the top, all you can think about is taking that final step."

"You, a king?" Tandin snorts. "The people of Onderon -."

"The people of Onderon are all animals at heart, and animals are ruled by power."

"You knew I took the artifacts," Tandin says. "Why didn't you make your move earlier?"

"We had probe droids after you defected," Cree says simply. "Most of them didn't make it past your perimeter, but one did. One that captured an image of Steela Gerrera holding this music box."

"You knew he divided the relics and you couldn't steal them all at once."

Cree ignores me, which just confirms my statement. "After I saw the footage, I told Kalani to send out the gunships. And I had said gunships altered a little, adding emergency batteries to the guns which were independent of the main power system."

It takes a second for that to sink in.

 _Guns…independent of the main power system._

"You killed Steela," I realize.

"I didn't set her up on the cliff; she did that all herself," Cree says. "I was just going to shoot the girl."

Ahsoka's mouth falls open. "She was never concerned with you, Advisor!"

"Why?" Tandin demands. "Why would you kill her? She didn't have anything to do with this!"

"If she died, then the artifact would be returned to the palace," Cree shrugs. "After her death it would be only a matter of time before her brother followed her lead. A barfight gone bad, something like that. And with the bond between him and Senator Bonteri…"

"You planned to knock them down like dominoes!" Ahsoka rages.

"And the relics would all be back in the palace," Cree says dismissively. "If Dendup didn't notice they were gone now, he wouldn't notice later."

Tandin lunges against his restrains, a vein popping out of his forehead. "He would have noticed, if only because I warned him!"

"You're a traitor," Cree points out. "What's keeping you from switching sides again? General Tandin, treasure hunter who conspired to raid the tomb for his own gain."

"You're sick," Ahsoka hisses.

"I'm not. I'm just a politician."

"So what now?" I demand. "You can't kill all of us without raising major red flags, and you don't have all four artifacts."

"You mean the glass?" he deadpans, holding up a piece of swirled glass in a gold frame. "You really think I didn't find out the combination to Tandin's blaster safe? Next time, don't use your mother's birthday."

The chronometer on the wall makes a shrill alarm. It's high noon.

"There are people meeting us at Tandin's for the barbecue," I say, thinking quickly. "They'll notice we're missing and they know we're in the palace."

Cree sets the glass down and picks up something out of our field of view. He turns around and levels Tandin's blaster at us.

"Too bad Tandin killed you when you tried to stop him from raiding the tomb."

The batteries in the blaster charge and I do the smartest thing I can think of: I scoot away from Ahsoka so she has the greatest amount of space possible to work with. She gets ready to lunge or do Unifar-knows-what to Cree with the force. Tandin looks ready to rip Cree limb from limb. I'm ready to join them in whatever they decide to do to him.

But before carnage, rage, or a cold-blooded execution can begin, Cree's interrupted by a door opening and a call of "Advisor Cree, I brought your lunch."

The palace cupbearer walks in holding a tray. A tray containing Cree's lunch.

Cree freezes. For all his plans and backup plans, it looks like he forgot about the servants.

The cupbearer turns in our direction and drops her tray in shock, her eyes going wide when she sees the three of us tied up on the floor and Cree holding a blaster.

Tandin and I also freeze when she walks in, our mouths agape.

Ahsoka does not freeze.

She summons the blade from across the room and releases it in front of the cupbearer, who clumsily catches it as it falls.

"Show that to the king and bring him here, _now!"_ she yells. The cupbearer doesn't need any more instruction; she nearly slips in spilled egg salad in her rush to bolt out the door, the knife clutched in her hand.

Cree hesitates for a second trying to decide whether to shoot us or the cupbearer, and in doing so makes his fatal mistake. Tandin body slams him to the floor.

I scramble for the table and kick Ahsoka's lightsabers to her. The blades flash to life and slice though the binders on her wrists, then the ones on mine.

Ahsoka expertly cuts the bonds on Tandin's wrists, but he doesn't thank her. He doesn't acknowledge she's there. He doesn't even stand up.

Instead his face twists into an inhuman mask and he wraps his beefy hands around Cree's thin neck.

"I want you to know something, Advisor," he hisses. "House Tandin's sigil is an anooba with three heads. Most believe that it's for loyalty, but they forget that the three-headed anooba guards the gates to Hell!" And so help me Unifar, it sounds for all the world that Tandin wants to put Cree there.

"I gave those specific rebels the artifacts for a reason, and the reason was that I love those boys and I loved that girl." His voice drops an octave into a ringing, terrifying bass. "She was brave, and kind, and you killed her like a _coward!"_

Cree gasps for air and Tandin tightens his grip as if the sound offends him. I grab Ahsoka's arm before she can get any ideas about interfering – never in my life, not even when we were breaking into his house, have I seen General Tandin so angry, and I don't want to get in his way.

"The only reason I haven't snapped your neck already is because I'm trying to decide whether to turn you over to Saw Gerrera or just feed you to my anooba!" he roars.

Cree's eyes bulge, whether it's from lack of air or the prospect of being turned into Sprinkles chow I'm not sure.

"Stop this!"

A throng of militiamen charge into the room, followed by Saw, and King Dendup holding the hand of the very freaked-out cupbearer.

Tandin makes a disgusted sound and releases Cree's throat, glaring hard at him while he draws lungful after lungful.

Dendup hands the cupbearer off to Saw and fixes all three of us with a hard look.

"This cupbearer just charged into the room where Saw and I were playing dejarik half in tears and babbling about a gunfight in Advisor Cree's office. She handed me _this."_ He holds the blade high in the air.

"And once I arrive here, I find the room in chaos, Senator Bonteri holding Padawan Tano back from what I can only fathom would be a fight, and my best general choking my top advisor!" He waves his blade-holding hand around in the air. "What in the name of Unifar are you doing here -." His gaze falls on the table and his jaw drops. "Are those the forbidden artifacts?"

"Your Highness, I can explain. I was attacked -," Cree gasps.

"Stop your lying!" I shout and lunge at him. The guards stop me before I can so much move my feet.

"So I'll give you one last chance to explain yourselves to me, gentlemen and lady," Dendup interrupts. " _What are you doing with the forbidden artifacts?"_

…

The explanation was not pretty.

Cree wanted to get his side of the story into King Dendup's head.

Ahsoka very calmly informed him that she would remove his head and use it to play bolo-ball before that happened.

In the end, Dendup made everyone go stand in each corner of the room to minimize the odds of our ripping each other's throats out. Then one by one, and going in alphabetical order, we each told him our story.

Since "Okalin" comes last in the alphabet behind "Ahsoka," "Gregory" (Tandin), and "Lux," then he has to go last.

"I'm not sure why this is happening," Cree tuts, his big eyes flickering back and forth. "I was simply doing some paperwork in my office, when suddenly these three came in and -."

"This is Lux, Ahsoka, and Tandin you're talking about here, Advisor," Saw scoffs. "They're not the bloodthirsty types."

"Power corrupts, Mr. Gerrera. I didn't ask to be choked within an inch of my life."

"Tandin grabbed you because you killed our friend for a music box!" I rage.

Silence falls.

"Steela had a music box," Saw remembers.

I shoot Dendup a look that says _stop him_ but the cupbearer gets the message first. "Mr. Gerrera, I think the nurse said it's time for your -."

Saw pushes her aside and limps forward on his bad leg. "He said you killed someone for Steela's music box. Who?"

Cree swallows hard. "I didn't kill anyone, Mr. Gerrera. A-all I did was a-alter the artillery for the gunships, as was my d-duty."

"A cannon caused Ahsoka to drop Steela off a cliff. You killed her." He turns bright red. "You killed my sister!"

The militiamen guarding Cree forget all about him and move to block Saw from attacking their prime suspect. Saw squirms and thrashes in their grip, his pain forgotten and replaced with white-hot rage.

"Saw, stop!" I order and try to pull him back from the screen of militiamen.

"I'm not stopping until that son of a bantha's nothing but a bloody stain on the floor! _He killed my sister!_ " He somehow finds a hole in the Great Wall of Militiamen and worms his upper body through. He would have gotten farther if Ahsoka and I didn't grab his legs, count to three, and pull with all our might.

With his legs held up but his upper body unsupported, Saw unglamorously belly flops onto the floor. His chin knocks into the rug, giving him a good whack, and the blow knocks him from his stupor.

"Give me a blaster," he moans. "If you're not going to let me at him then at least give me a blaster. _Oh God…"_ An animal noise tears itself from his throat; whether it's from grief or rage I can't tell.

Dendup shoots Cree a very black look.

"Take him to the dungeon," he seethes. "We'll deal with him later."

The militiamen march Cree out and I fall to my knees to gather Saw into my arms.

"Saw -." I start speaking until I realize that there are no words to say. If I had a sister and someone killed her, I don't know what I would do.

So I let Saw rest his head on my shoulder, hold him close, and don't say anything. We let the silence fill the hall.

"Your Majesty?" The poor forgotten cupbearer squeaks from across the room.

"Yes?" Dendup half-snaps.

The girl swallows as if she thinks he'll take her head. "M-may I go home for the rest of the day?"

Dendup's face softens. Ending shootouts certainly wasn't in this girl's job description.

"Why don't you take tomorrow off too?" he negotiates and helps her to her feet.

 **After excitement like that, the poor cupbearer probably deserves a raise as well.**

 **We have the identity of the treasure hunter, but fear not! There are still some threads that we need to tie before story's end.**

 **Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics, TessaFred, and RoseRavenclaw for your review. And speaking of which, please review.**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	17. Porter of Hell-Gate

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – PORTER OF HELL-GATE**

 **AHSOKA**

"I thought I knew who I could trust," Dendup hems as he walks in circles around his desk in front of which Lux, Saw, Tandin, and I sit sheepishly. "I thought I had surrounded myself with beings who would never keep a secret from me, so that we could best manage Onderon.

"And then," he continues, his head snapping to face us, "I find out that Senator Bonteri and Padawan Tano are not on leave by any stretch of the imagination, Cree plots to open the forbidden tomb and kill you all, and General Tandin has been performing an artifact-running scheme for months right under my nose!"

"Your majesty, please don't blame them. It was all my fault; I opened the door -," Tandin protests.

"No it wasn't," Lux interjects. "We're in this situation because Sanjay Rash was a megalomaniac who couldn't be trusted with the artifacts, and it turns out that Cree is much greedier than we once thought. It certainly wasn't Tandin's fault."

"It kind of was," Saw mumbles under his breath.

Lux shoots him a dirty look. "Please don't get him in trouble."

"I don't plan on getting anyone into trouble needlessly, Senator Bonteri. However, I do believe in proper justice for a wrong, and some of that is in order. Perhaps we can start with an _explanation?"_

Tandin gulps.

"I was doing what I thought had to be done to protect Onderon," he says. "I thought if no one knew the true nature of the forbidden artifacts, they would fade from memory and the tomb would remain closed. It appears I underestimated Advisor Cree and his ambitions."

Dendup gestures to the artifacts lined up on the desk. "Did it not occur to you they may be safer in the palace's safe than in the hands of children?"

"To be frank, Your Majesty, Cree had the code to the palace safe," I pipe up.

Dendup turns his attention to me. "Padawan Tano, I haven't informed the Jedi Council of the nature of your stay here and I don't plan to as long as your cooperation in this matter continues."

Is that blackmail? I don't dare ask, because if Anakin finds out what I'm really doing on Onderon he'll boil me alive. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

"Don't thank me yet," he says sourly. "I'm not done with the lot of you. I'd like you to explain, from the very beginning, exactly what possessed you to go near the forbidden artifacts in the first place."

Tandin looks down at his lap, takes a deep breath, and explains.

He explains the look in Sanjay Rash's eyes when the advisors before him told him of the artifacts' purpose. He explains the questions the false king asked: how do they work? What do they do? How can I use them? He explains the sinking feeling in his stomach as the advisors, led by Cree, divulged the power they'd put in Rash's hands.

He explains his thoughts as he passed the throne room to get his men and defect, the sudden realization that _Rash can never have the relics._ He explains how he stuffed them into his pack, slipped the ring on his finger for just a second, and escaped with the rebels off the palace steps. He explains how he believes with all his heart that the ring's magic is the only reason we all survived the palace steps.

He explains how hard it was to take the ring off his finger, and how then he knew he couldn't manage the power all the relics held. He explains his reasons for deciding which relic went to who.

With a soft voice he describes the way the tension fell from Steela's face when he played the music box for her. He describes how happy she was when he said he wanted her to have it, Saw's grateful "Thanks, general," when he tucked the blade into his belt and Lux's formal but sincere gratitude at receiving the ring.

Yeah. That sounds like Lux.

He explains his terror when he heard Jack and Maria had stolen the music box; how he stole the blade to keep it from falling into the wrong hands while Saw was at the hospital. He explains the whole long and exhausting charade that ensued when Lux and I broke into his house until the cupbearer walked in on Cree's attempt to kill us all.

Dendup stares at all of us for a good, long while after Tandin's explanation.

"This has gone on long enough," he says exhaustedly. "These relics, the tomb, the great game. It needs to end, and it needs to end so it cannot be begun again."

"How do you propose we do that?" Lux asks.

"We lock the artifacts inside the very tomb they open."

Lux blinks. Tandin's eyes go huge. I almost choke on my tongue.

"Your Majesty, as a representative of the Jedi Order I can tell you that we have a third option. If you would turn the relics over to the Jedi Order -."

"Then the Jedi Order would use them for their own gains, or someone else would," Dendup announces. "Yours is a noble institution, Ahsoka, but I'm afraid that it's falling to corruption just like everything else. No, the relics will stay in Iziz – or should I say _under_ Iziz. General Tandin, do you know anything about the tomb's location?"

Tandin perks up a little, with a face that practically says _Wait, you're not going to fire me? Great!_ "I don't know, your Majesty. I assume it's in the catacombs like the tomb of Freedon Nadd, but I don't have any evidence to direct me further than that."

I pick up the ring and turn it over in my hands. "The jewels are the same in each artifact. Could they be a clue?"

"Possibly," Tandin mulls. "They use similar colors in the Unifar Temple."

"They use every color in the Unifar Temple," Lux reminds him. "But I think you're on the right track. Nadd's tomb was built under the Royal Palace. Maybe these architects put the forbidden tomb under another high-profile building so they could find it."

"If so, then we need to find the right entrance to the catacombs via the Unifar Temple. Pick the wrong one and the tunnels will spit us out in the middle of the jungle," Saw says.

I hold the ring in the air again. "You said they use these colors in sections of the temple?"

"Yeah, in some of the shrines," Saw admits.

"Any of those shrines have an entrance to the catacombs?"

…

"These are the right colors."

I hold the ring up to the stained glass windows. "Down to the shade. Considering they're two separate materials, it's impressive."

"Looks like our temple theory was right. Now all we need is an entrance to the catacombs," Lux says and glances around looking for anything that could be a door.

General Tandin, whose job description may as well include "our personal babysitter," joins him. "It won't be out in the open, but in a building like this it wouldn't be hard to hide a panel."

Saw hobbles past us. "Well it's not going to be in thin air. Everyone take a wall."

"And Ahsoka," Tandin says, "I'm sorry, but that will have to be where we part ways. The old laws state that only those born of Onderon may step over the threshold to the catacombs."

Lux turns around. "Or what?"

"Considering the sheer amount of magic and such we've been exposed to, I would wager that it's something _very bad,"_ Tandin snaps. _Poor Tandin. He's probably had it up to his eyeballs by now…_

"Is that what it said?" Lux continues. "'Only those born of Onderon may step over the threshold'? Did it say that exactly?"

"Yes. Yes it did."

"So we'll make it so she doesn't _step_ over anything. I'll carry her," he announces, obviously pleased with himself.

He's not the only one pleased; Saw and I are both pretty impressed.

"Exact words much, Lux?"

"I'm a politician," he preens. "I'm a master at following the exact words."

Saw runs his hands over the wall and pauses when he gets to the statue. "Tandin? Bonteri? Just a question because I'm not in here a whole lot and when I am it's not from this angle. Isn't this statue supposed to be part of the wall?"

The statue's the focal point of the room; one of the saints of Unifras with her hands raised in silent benediction. I go around to the opposite side and examine it.

"It's definitely off the wall," I say and experimentally fit a fingernail in the space between the statue and the wall. "Considering the molding on this pedestal, it looks like someone's trying to make it look like it's part of the building."

Lux looks over my shoulder. "With all of us together, we could probably push it to a side."

"And find out what's behind," Tandin meets the statue's stony eyes. "I'm sorry, St. Augusta. But we'll need to move you for the greater good."

We all gather on one side of the statue, brace our backs against it, and push. The statue doesn't budge.

"Saw, push!" Lux grunts.

"I am pushing! St. Augusta needs to lay off the pasta!"

"Both of you stop whining and _push!"_ I yell.

Tandin body slams the statue while the rest of our weights are braced against it. It moves about an inch, but an inch is enough to see the dark and cavernous space behind it.

"On the count of three push as hard as you can, boys," I order and step back to gather the Force around me.

"One, two…"

The men shove into the statue and I bring the power of the Force against it with all my might. It skids across the floor slowly and with the reluctance of something that isn't meant to be disturbed, but it pushes aside all the same.

The newly exposed entrance breathes musty air into the Unifar Temple.

Lux holds out his arms. "If you please, my lady."

"Don't drop me," I warn him and cautiously wrap my arms around my neck. Tandin lights a glowlamp and enters the tunnel. Saw follows and then Lux and I.

"Oh good," Saw breathes once we're safely in the tunnel. "Ahsoka didn't get vaporized."

"See, politics are good for something," Lux says as he sets me down.

I examine the tunnel in the light of Tandin's glowlamp. "The Geonosians build catacombs like this under their buildings, but theirs are for transportation and carrying out daily functions. These don't seem to be used."

"They _were_ used," Saw says. "During the Beast Wars the Naddists outlawed any religion but their own. So the Unifras used these catacombs as meeting places and ways to escape if they were being chased."

"They're very extensive," Lux chimes in. "They say there are catacombs that lead out of the city and into the jungle trails that go to Kira Fortress and to my family's lands past the Highlands."

"And we have no idea where we're going?"

"If the dust behind St. Augusta was any indication, nobody's opened this tunnel for a while."

Then we're lost in a spiraling maze of tunnels with no map.

"Hold on," Saw says. "Tandin, can you shine the glowlamp over here? The jewels on the music box look sort of weird."

"Weird how?"

"They're red and green," he says. "But in this light, it looks like some of the red crystals are actually green, and vice versa. Do you think that might -."

"Hold the glass over the box," Tandin says hurriedly and brings said object forward. When held over the music box's lid, there's a clear line of red jewels leading to the center.

"It's a map," I breathe. "The box lid's a map."

"Yeah, but the middle is missing!" Saw groans.

"Lux, your ring. It has gems just like the box!"

Lux holds the ring in the center of the box and lo and behold, the stones change color in the glass' light."

"We have directions," Tandin breathes a sigh of relief. "Everyone, stay together."

…

The door to the tomb is enormous.

Formed of some kind of dark granite, it would be indiscernible from the catacomb walls except for the three-pronged hole in the center, framed by a circle of green and red gems.

"We definitely have the right place," I say, taking it in in awe.

"And we have the key," Tandin says. "Saw, the door matches the blade."

Saw takes the blade from his pocket and holds the handle to Tandin.

"No," he says. "You've devoted your life to this for force knows how long. I want you to do the honors."

Eyes wide, Tandin takes the blade, gingerly inserts it into the door, and turns. The door pulls back with a deep, unearthly rumble.

The tomb glows; some kind of luminescent stone is inserted into the ceiling, giving light to the chamber. The only furnishing is an altar smack in the center, fashioned from stone with gold accents.

And on the altar – a boulder? A piece of a mountain?

Lux breaks the silence. "Is that a geode?"

"It's not a geode," Tandin breathes. "It's an egg."

 **Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, it's not Godzilla. Even I wouldn't do that to the poor characters ... and I put them through a lot.**

 **Thank you to Rose Ravenclaw and Starwarshobbitfics for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


	18. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW**

 **LUX**

"It's not a geode," Tandin breathes. "It's an egg."

He approaches and rests his hand on the petrified surface. "I never thought I would see one of these in my life."

"What kind of egg is it?" Ahsoka asks. "Fambaas don't look big enough to lay something like this."

"Only one beast lays eggs like this," I gulp. "The drexl."

Ahsoka raises an eye marking. "Don't drexls only live on Dxun?"

"When the moon's atmosphere touches Onderon's, they can fly down to the planet, but the last time that happened was during the Beast Wars. There haven't been any drexls on Onderon for a thousand years."

"The Naddists must have wanted to keep one egg handy," Saw shivers. "Tandin, good move taking the relics away from Rash. If he'd gotten his hands on a drexl, we'd all be toast."

In more ways than one. In so many words, the drexl is Onderon's very own dragon. Even a baby drexl could wreak havoc in the skies and crush the rebellion before we even knew what hit us. Rash would have been unstoppable with one on his side.

Ahsoka touches the egg and either I'm crazy or something _stirs_ inside it.

"It's in stasis," she announces. "It would take a Force user to hatch it."

"Still wouldn't have stopped Rash. Dooku could have sent an acolyte over to hatch it for him."

Ahsoka removes her hand as if to prevent herself from accidentally awakening the drexl. "And he certainly would have. A beast like this…" She trails off, probably because she doesn't want to imagine herself as drexl flambé. To be honest, I don't want that mental image either.

Tandin swallows hard and sets the blade on the floor before the altar.

I follow his lead with the glass and the ring, setting them all in a line.

We turn back to Saw, still holding the music box.

"We have to," I say and place my hand on his bicep. "There's no other way."

Saw closes his eyes and opens the lid one last time to hear the nameless, wordless tune filter from the box. The music which sounds like my mother's voice, Ahsoka's voice, and to Saw's (and even a little to mine) Steela's, even though I never heard her sing.

The familiar tune completes its first cycle and switches to something else so seamlessly you would never hear it unless you were listening.

 _O brother, brother…_

Saw's eyes snap open and meet mine in a look of recognition. For some reason the box is playing "St. Joanna's Song."

St. Joanna, for those who don't know, was a fourteen-year-old Unifras girl killed by the Naddists during the Beast Wars. Martyrdom unfortunately wasn't too uncommon during the Naddist oppression and under normal circumstances Joanna would simply have been forgotten like the scores of other martyrs. But a few days after she died, Joanna appeared to her brother and gave him a speech which was pretty … unsaintly.

So violent and full of vengeance was Joanna's speech that there was a fair amount of discourse over whether or not she should be sainted, but since she met all the other requirements for sainthood it ultimately happened. Someone set her words to music, and "St. Joanna's Song" was born.

Saw and I don't break eye contact while the song plays, each of us able to recall the words in our head.

 _O brother, brother avenge me_

 _Avenge me with your sword_

 _So all his children, near and far_

 _May freely speak his word_

 _Strike down the hate-hewn heart of Nadd_

 _Stake Unifar's heav'nly claim_

 _Swing swords, for it's no murder when_

 _Committed in his name._

 _I have passed on; I cannot fight_

 _So brother, I send you_

 _Strike fierce, strike bold, and strike for blood_

 _Strike harsh and brave and true_

 _O brother, brother avenge me!_

 _Avenge me with your sword!_

 _So all the children, near and far_

 _Forever speak God's word._

Saw's and my eyes have an entire conversation.

 _There's no way this is a coincidence, Bonteri._

 _My God, do you think she's possessing the box?!_

 _If Steela was gonna possess something, she would go for a tank. Or possibly a fambaa. Something to wipe Cree off the face of the planet. We have to do it. We have to._

 _We can't let Ahsoka and Tandin know. They don't understand._

Saw shuts the lid of the music box while the strains of "St. Joanna's Song" still linger in the air and places it next to the other three relics.

"Let's go," he growls and walks into the catacombs. "I don't want to be around these any longer than I have to."

I extend my hand to Ahsoka. "I have to agree with him, Soka."

We exit the tomb and the door rumbles closed, sealing the artifacts inside forever.

…

St. Augusta's shrine is right next to St. Joanna's. When we exit the Unifar Temple, Saw's and my eyes drift over to the likeness of the youthful saint. Like in all her depictions, St. Joanna's hands are held out like the balances of a scale. In one hand she holds a knife, in the other a symbol of Unifras.

When I was young my mother taught me that the balance meant that prayer was just as good a weapon as a dagger. Now, I take it for the opposite.

…

Objective one: Do not, do not, _do not_ let Ahsoka find out about what Saw and I are planning.

This is harder than one would think when the person who is not to find out is force-sensitive.

"Lux," Ahsoka says when we leave Saw and Tandin at the palace. "I know what you're thinking. Don't do it."

 _Well, it looks like that bubble's popped._ "Ahsoka -."

"No," she says. "Lux, I love you dearly and you're one of my best friends, but I can't let you do this. I can't let you and Saw kill Cree."

"Why not?" I snap. "Ahsoka, he killed our friend. He let us think that our mistakes killed her, but it was him! This isn't murder; it's justice."

"No it's not," she says harshly. "You are talking about killing a prisoner awaiting trial. Let the judge decide his fate. The penalty for treason against the Onderonian throne is death; maybe they'll let you and Saw swing the sword.

Maybe, but that's not a gamble I'm willing to take. I relax, as if deflated. "You're right," I say and extend my arms for a hug. "I'm sorry. This day has just been really…hard."

When Ahsoka fits herself into my arms I reach for my utility belt and feel for my stunner. _When she wakes up, she's going to boil me alive._

She sees it. "Lux Bonteri, don't you dare!"

"I'm sorry, Ahsoka," I say and stun her.

 **THIRD PERSON**

Lux Bonteri and Saw Gerrera meet in the dark of the night in the Iziz Royal Palace. Each is clothed in black. Each is carrying a dagger.

The dagger may not have the civility of the lightsaber, but it gets the job done. It is the weapon obsessed over by regicidal kings, the deciding factor in scores of duels, possibly the first weapon of all. It is small, easy to use, and easy to conceal.

"Where's Ahsoka?" Saw asks.

"Napping,"

Saw knows what that means and decides not to comment. "You know which cell he's in?"

"We'll just have to guess. Shouldn't be hard."

Lux is right; it isn't hard. The militiamen placed Cree in the first cell on the left, per protocol. The ex-advisor sits quietly on his bench, staring straight ahead.

"Mr. Bonteri. Mr. Gerrera."

"Mr. Cree," Lux replies. "We just stopped by to let you know that we opened the tomb."

Cree perks up a bit. "What did you find?"

"We'll tell you later. But first I want to talk about houses.

"House Bonteri. Our sigil, a silver rose on a purple field," Lux says. "My mother taught me a great deal about roses. They look delicate, but they're hardy plants. You can cut a rosebush to the roots and it will grow back come the next spring with blossoms as bright as ever.

"But the thing she made sure I remembered," he says and unsheathes his dagger. "Is that roses have thorns."

Cree, the smart man that he is, knew what was coming but seeing the dagger is an entirely different story.

"House Gerrera is a newer house, having just come into power after the rebellion, but we still had a sigil for all those years," Saw says. "A black drexl on a sea green field, its wings extended and its jaw open. That way everyone who saw our banners would remember that drexls have teeth."

Saw pulls out his own dagger and Cree slumps in his seat.

"Get on with it," he says hollowly.

But Saw isn't done with him yet. "Do you know how drexl siblings live? You know they share their food in the nest and protect each other the rest of their lives?" His voice breaks. "Do you know they mourn when their siblings die?"

The sorrow doesn't last long; instead it's replaced by blinding rage. The sound of cannon shots, Steela's face, the tomb's drexl egg, St. Joanna's Song – they all combine together into an anger which would make Sith Lords cower in rage. Even the eldest and most horrible of Sith Lords knew the power of the love between brothers and sisters, whether it was St. Joanna's avenging her with the sword or Steela Gerrera's with two daggers.

When it's over Cree croaks. "Why didn't you just kill me? Why all this talk of roses and drexls and houses?"

"Just answering your question. My house sigil is the same thing we found in the tomb," Saw growls. "A drexl."

The irony that he killed a drexl for a drexl would be utterly lost on Cree had he stayed alive long enough to appreciate it.

Lux and Saw take their leave, bloody daggers clutched in their hands.

Far away, a restless soul in the arms of St. Joanna gets her vengeance and goes on her way.

…

General Tandin and King Dendup know what happened. They would have to be fools not to.

But they don't say anything. Maybe because they know Saw would never have closure if he didn't do it. Maybe because they would have done it if they had half a chance.

It might be because a soul whispered in their ears _thank you for helping them to avenge me._

Whatever the reason, they order Cree's body cremated immediately and the king writes up his death certificate personally.

Cause of death: Sharp force trauma

Manner of Death: Suicide

…

"So Lux and Ahsoka, where do you think you're actually going to spend your shore leave?" Dendup asks over breakfast in the Royal Palace.

Ahsoka swallows her orange juice. She wasn't expecting this question from the king – the palace still stinks of murder and treasure hunting – but she'll welcome it. "I'm not sure, Your Highness. I was going to suggest Lux and I go back to his family's estates, but now that I think about it our best course of action might be to remain anonymous where we won't end up in any more excitement."

"Anoymimity has its benefits," Tandin shrugs. "I have to agree. You two deserve some relaxation."

"But not complete idleness," Lux breaks in. "The only reason I decided against going to my family's land is because it would be very much the same as remaining here in Iziz in that I'd still be home."

"You two need a vacation," Saw prescribes. "Maybe you could get a cabin in the Highlands. Or go to Naboo?"

"The lake country there is very relaxing," Ahsoka mulls. "But knowing Padme, she'd fly over just to drag me along on a shopping spree."

"Maybe not that one," Lux says. "Alderaan is beautiful too."

"I think Senator Organa would keep quiet for us. It's just the problem of -."

"WHAT DID I MISS?"

A sunburnt, tropical shirt-clad, out-of-breath man bursts through the door holding a suitcase in each hand.

Lux and Saw look at each other, and then at the new arrival.

"Oh. Hey, Hutch." Saw says and tries to hide behind his plate.

Hutch drops his suitcases. "I don't know much, but Bonteri said something about you and serial killers and whatever they sent me on Rion was creepy as heck so I'm ready to go. My computer's in one of these things; just give me the palace HoloNet password and we're all good to go."

"Um, man? It's all taken care of now…sorry." Lux says sheepishly. "We kind of forgot to tell you."

"Of course," Hutch moans. "Of course everything's taken care of. And nobody bothered to tell me after I went through the nine Corellian hells booking a return ticket earlier than expected, and my beach condo still has a week left on the rental. Of _course_ that would happen to me."

Ahsoka starts to feel an idea tickling at her mind. "Can you go back?"

Hutch looks at her like she's crazy. "Uh, no. I didn't st- I mean, _borrow_ – enough money for double space fare." He mopes and looks down at his suitcases. "At least work doesn't know I'm back yet."

"And your rental cabin still has a week on it?"

The gears turn in Lux's brain as well. "Yeah. Hutch, it couldn't have cost more than a thousand credits, could it?"

"A thousand credits is a lot of money to those of us who work at the Reddy Mart!" Hutch squeaks. "Why? Do you want to sub-rent it or something?"

Lux and Ahsoka take a minute to picture it: a rental cabin on the beaches of Rion, with nothing but blue water and white sands. No chasing psychopaths, no interrogation room battles, no breaking and entering, no treasure hunting, no revenge murders, no deception or intrigue or backstabbing…

Only peace, quiet, and maybe a cold drink or two.

Force knew they needed it.

"Yeah, Hutch. We'd actually like that very much."

 **And now to close out the story and the year. After all that's gone on during this story, Lux and Ahsoka deserve a little R &R in a tropical resort. **

**Thank you to Starwarshobbitfics and julyza for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **LS**


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